
Book ■ 



%s / 



THE 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY 



AND 



THE MAGYARS: 



FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE CLOSE OF THE LATE WAR. 



BY 



EDWIN LAWEENCE' GODKIN. 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 



NEW YORK : 
ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY, 17, SPRUCE STREET. 

1853, 



.6^"^' 



4 



r; 



PREriCE 



Many of the facts detailed in this work will possess no novelty for students 
of history. The writer does not i^rofess to have derived his materials 
from any extraordinary sources. With most, if not all, of the books he 
has consulted, the literary world is, more or less, familiar. 

His object has been simply to present, in a popular form, the history 
of a great people, concerning whom the mass of English readers have 
no information except what can be gleaned from the stray and scanty 
allusions contained in the various accounts of the wars and revolutions 
of the German empire. He has dwelt at considerable length upon 
the relations existing between Hungary and the House of Hapsburg, 
because it is mainly upon the peculiar nature of these that her claims 
to the sympathy of Europe are founded. He has endeavoured throughout 
to make the narrative as plain and succinct as possible ; and for the 
attainment of this object has, in many places, sacrificed a great number of 
collateral details. Eoreign wars, as the least interesting episodes in a 
nation's life, when they leave behind no marked results, he has in many 
instances passed over with a mere mention. His great aim has been to 
convey a clear idea of the nature and the origin of the late revolution to 
the minds of those who have hitherto given but little attention to 
European politics. Eor information regarding the war of independence he 
has consulted most of the works which have since appeared on the subject. 
To that of General Klapka, as the most trustworthy, perhaps, he is under 
greater obligations than any. The interest which the Magyars excited in 
1849 is kept alive by the certainty, which every one who pays any 
attention to the state of aflPairs on the continent must feel, that, in the 
next great European convulsion, they will play, if possible, a still more 
important part than in the last. 

A history of Hungary, which will satisfy all the requirements of 
criticism, can never be written until her archives are in the hands of the 
rightful owners, and until the restoration of her liberties shall have enabled 
foreigners to study her institutions with the attention they merit. To 
such a character, therefore, this one lays no claim. 

Lo>^DON, September, 15ih, 1853. 



COj^TEITTS. 



PAGE 

Chapter I. — Roman Period . . . , . . . . . . . . 1 

„ II.— The Huns— Attila . . . . . . . . . . 7 

„ III. — The Magyars — Origin, manners, first appearance in Enrope, their 
I'avages in Germany and Italy — Final overthi'ow by Otho the 
Great . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 

„ IV.— The Dynasty of Arpad . . . . . . . . . . 32 

„ V, — Dynasty of Arpad continued . . . . . . ... 51 

„ VI. — -Ascension of the House of Anjou — Charles llobert . . . . 69 

„ VII. — Lou.is the Great . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 

„ VIII. — Maria and Sigismond — The Turks . . . . . . 91 

„ X. — Ladislaus II. . . . . . . . . . . 103 

„ XI. — Ladislaus III. — Regency of Hunyadi . . . . . . 116 

„ XII. — Mathias Corvinus . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 

„ XIII. — Ladislaus IV. and Louis II. — Peasant War and Turkish Conquests 134 
„ XIV. — Ferdinand I. and John Szapolyai . . . . . . . . 144 

„ XV. — John Sigismond and Stephen Bathori . . . . . . . . 175 

„ XVI.— Wars of Gabriel Bethlem and Ferdinand II. and III. . . 197 

„ XVII.— The Reign of Leopold . . . . . . . . . . 205 

„ XVIII.— Rebellion of -Francis Rakotski .. .. .. .. 246 

„ XIX.— Charles III. and Maria Theresa . . . . . . . . 263 

„ XX. — Troubles in the Reign of Joseph II., and Leopold II., and Francis I. 284 
„ XXI. — Conflicts between the Diet and the Government — ^Progress of Reform 293 
„ XXII.— War of Independence .. .. .. .. ..324 

„ XXIII.— The Horrors of the Peace . . . . . . . . 352 

,, XXIV,— The Hungarian Constitution — Variety of Races . . . . 370 



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TABLE OP REFERENCES TO THE FIGURES IN THE MAP. 

[At places marked thus *, battles wore fought in the War of Independence.] 



1. Defile of Jablunka (passage of the 

llussians). 

2. Deven. 

3. Tyrnavia. 

4. Kailway from Presburg to Tyrnavia. 

5. Trencin. 

6. Beczko. 

7. lUava. 

8. Arva. 

9. Kossuth (patrimony of the Kossuth 

family). 

10. Teplitz. 

11. Streczen. 

12. Leopoldburg. 

13. Nitra. 

14. *Sarlo. 

15. Sttigonia. 

16. Comom. 

17. Arabon. 

18. Posonia (Presburg). 
l'>. Kesmark. 

20. Leocsa. 

21. Eperies. 

22. Befile of Dukla (passage of the Russians) . 

23. Bartfa. 

24. Kremnitz (gold mines). 

25. Tokay (vine district). 

26. Zemplin. 

27. Unghvar (seat of Huns). 

28. Mungacs. 

29. Szigeth. 

30. Mount Tatra. 

31. Bisztricz. 

32. Gyarmath. 

33. Vacz. 

34. Miskolcz. 

35. Agria. 

36. Onod, 

37. *Kapolna. 

38. Tiszafured. 

39. Mount Matra. 

40. Parad. 

41. Gyongeos. 

42. Buda. 

43. Pesth. 

44. Gcodoelloe. 

45. Pi,ailway from Pesth to Vienna. 

46. .Jasbereny. 

47. Debreczin, 

48. Szolnok. 

49. Railway ixom Pesth to Debreczin. 

50. Grreat Varadin. 

51. Szeguedin. 

52. Arad. 

53. Vilagos. 

54. Kolosvar (capital of Transylvania) . 

55. TJdvarhely (chief town of the Szeklers). 

56. Cibina (capital of Saxon Land). 
•57. Corona. 

•58. Karlburs. 



59. *Piska. 

60. Deva. 

61. Vajda Hunyad. 

62. Detile of the Red Tower (passage of the 

Russians) . 

63. Orsova (by which Kossuth escaped). 

64. Temesvar. 

65. Bega Canal. 

66. Berzava Canal. 

67. Panczova. 

68. Fehertemplom (Weiskirchen) 

69. Kevi (Kubin). 

70. Semlim. 

71. Tetel. 

72. Petervaradin. 

73. TJjvidek. 

74. Roman Ruins. 

75. St. Thomas. 

76. Great Becskerek, 

77. Mehadia. 

78. Batz. 

79. Eszek. 

80. Five Churches. 

81. Vukovar. 

82. Posega. 

83. Szigethvar. 

84. French Canal. 

85. Sarvitz Canal. 

86. Alba Regia. 

87. *Velentze. 

88. Raczkevi Island. 

89. Lake Balaton. 

90. Tihany. 

91. Szigligeth. 

92. Kesztholy. 

93. Bakony Mountains and Forests. 

94. Mor. 

95. Vesprim. 

96. Neusidlesee Lake. 

97. Soprony. 

98. Papa. 

99. Kerszey (Guns). 
100. Szala. 

102. Kanisa. 

103. Isle of Mur. 

104. Varadin. 

105. Agram, Zagabria (capital of Croatial. 

106. Port Royal. 

107. Fiume. 

108. Fured. 

109. Segna. 

110. Mohatz. 

111. Lugos. 

112. Visegrad. 

113. Ikervar (birth-place of Count Louis 

Batthyanyi) . 

115. River Save. 

116. Plain of liakos. 

117. Plain of Hortobagy. 



BRBATA. 

Page 2, line 32, Jot Tusculam, read Tusoulum. 

90, „ 39, for remains, read remain ; and in tlie line following:, for was, read -were. 
159, ,, 17, for or title, read and title. 
202, ,, 7, from below, /or them, reaf^liim. 
246, ,, 14, from below, /or a no less, ?-ca(i no less. 
344, last line, for grand armee read grande armee. 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 



CHAPTER I. 



ROMAN PERIOD. 



If the reader will look at a map of the Roman Empire, as it was in the third 
and fourth centuries of the Christian era, he will find that large tract of 
country noAV surrounded by the modern empires of Austria, Turkey, and Russia, 
set down as Pannonia and Dacia. This formed the north-western frontier, 
and was the scene of the fiercest struggles recorded in history. As it lay right in 
the course of all the hordes of various races who poured from the forests of the 
north and the plains of the east, during the earlier part of the Christian era, 
hurried on, as if by an irresistible impulse, to precipitate themselves upon the 
declining empire, it was seized and ravaged now by one and now by another 
— belonging to all of them by turns, but to none of them long. 

The Romans were the first to lift up the veil which shrouded all that region in 
ancient times. The Greeks, who knew more of everything than they did of 
geography, had a vague notion that it was peopled by a simple pastoral race whom 
they called Peones. The face of the country was covered by vast forests, with 
here and there a swampy meadow, intersected by great rivers rolling on darkly 
to the ocean, with no sound on their banks but the howl of the wolf or the cry of 
the heron. The Gauls, it is said, invaded this district about the year 587 B.C., 
one detachment settling in the part now known as Western Hungary, and the other 
pushing on into Greece, where, amongst other outrages, they pillaged the temple at 
Delphi. The Romans themselves for a long time peopled northern and western 
Europe Avith ogres, until Caesar's victories in Gaul helped to dissipate their delu- 
sions. The legions under Drusus, Germanicus, and Tiberius, were engaged in the 
subjugation of Dalmatia, when they Avere suddenly assailed by wild hordes from 
the banks of the Danube and the Teyss, whom it required all the strength of the 

i; 



2 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

empire to beat back. But Tiberius did not rest satisfied with repulsing them ; he 
followed them to their fastnesses, and, after a tremendous struggle, Pannonia and 
Dacia became provinces of the empire. 

It was part of the wise policy of the Romans never to rest content with sub- 
duing ; they always endeavoured to assimilate as well. No sooner was resistance 
at an end, than the work of civilization commenced. Scholars, lawyers, artists, 
merchants, artizans, nobles, even, settled in the newly- conquered territory, and soon 
made it reflect back the image of the mother country. In this way, Pannonia and 
Dacia were soon numbered amongst the most flourishing and civilized of the 
provinces. The frequent visits of the lieutenants of the emperors, or of the 
emperors themselves, for the purpose of repelling the incursions of the barbarians 
who hung about the north-Avest boundary of their dominions, brought, every year, 
fresh bands of colonists, who mixed freely with the natives, and soon inspired 
them with the tastes as well as the wants of civilized life, taught them their ^ 
language, the rich and sonorous Latin, made them sensible of the advantages of 
a well-admini^ered system of law. 

The face of the country soon became changed. Cultivated fields and smiling 
meadows took the place of the waving sedge of the marshes and the half- 
scorched reeds of the steppe. The axe of the Eoman backwoodsman soon 
opened fields and roads in the heart of the thick oak forests, wherein the Avolves 
had howled, and the Druids sacrificed for centuries before ; and the ploughman, 
with his goad and his rudely-yoked oxen, following in the track of tlie pioneer, 
soon presented to the astonished gaze of the natives a smiling garden, on the 
groiind where previously stood the thick fastnesses through which their forefathers 
hud hunted the Avild boar. The labours of the legionaries soon covered the pro- 
vi:ice with a net-work of great roads, built as if to last for ever, and private 
enterprise lined them all along with inns, and post-houses, and farms, and 
gorgeous villas ; and on all the sunny slopes, the vine, the present of the Emperor 
Probus, flourished under the watchful eye of the husbandman. Wherever a 
military fort had been built, splendid inansions of the rich provincials sprang up 
around it, furnished with all the luxury that distinguished the voluptuous retreats 
at Tiburnum or Tusculam. Cities soon rose, which received their priests and 
magistrates from Rome, and ^were decorated with magnificent temjDles, and statues 
of Greek workmanship instead of the rude images of the Celtic divinities. The 
Roman polytheism supplanted the Gallic pantheism ; and the transition was the 
easier, as many of the divinities difiered only in name. Phoran was another 
Jupiter, Hesus another Mars, and Baal an Apollo. 

But this period of glory and prosperity did not last long. Even when Dacia and 
Pannonia were conquered Rome was in her decline. While her hands were stretched 
forth to grasp the uttermost ends of the earth, a cancer — the cancer of corruption 
and vice— was preying at her vitals. Slowly, and not without many a struggle, 
did she succumb to the assaults of her enemies. But the crisis, so long averted. 



HO^kLlK PERIOD. 6 

came at last ; the legions slowly retired, and the barbarians of the north sv/ept 
like an avalanche across these scenes of luxury, art, and wealth, leaving naught 
behind but a howling waste, in which children, amidst blackened ruins, sought 
nourishment from the slaughtered bodies of their mothers. 

Of all the great works executed during the period of Roman domination, a few 
remains only are to be seen at the present day, and these can give but a faint 
idea of the splendour they have outlived. Below Columbacz the Danube rushes 
rapidly between high walls of rock, which give an air of grandeur to its course. 
In this neighbourhood traces of the Roman occupation become more numerous, 
and at last the most remarkable of any is seen after having 'passed Rogacs. This 
is known as Trajan's Tablet, and is an elegant piece of sculpture graven in the 
solid rock, and containing the inscription 

IMP. CXSXB. DIVI, XEUTAE F. TfiAJAXUS. AUG. GERM. PONTIFEX MAXlMUS. 

TEIB. P. O. XSX. 

The tablet is supported by two wings, and is stirmoiinted by a Roman eagle. 
It is supposed that this was intended to commemorate the piercing of the rocks 
by the legions when making the great road called after the emperor Via Trajana. 

Another of his mighty works is seen in the remains of the bridge which he 
threw across the Danube, near the modern town of Orsova, in his expedition 
against the King of Dacia. It was erected over a formidable rapid that no boat 
could pass without imminent danger. Upon each side of the river there still 
stand two enormous piles of masonry, about twenty feet in height, v>'hich were no 
doubt used as supports for the two arches at the extremities, spanning the bed of 
the river ; the piles upon which the others rested still remain, until the debris has 
formed a small island around them. Dion Cassius, v\'ho was governor of part 
of Pannonia in the reign of Adrian, Trajan's successor, has left some few details 
of the construction of this gigantic work. According to him, every buttress v.'as 
sixty feet in circumference, a.nd the distance from one to another 170 feet. The 
passage was defended by two towers of solid marble, one at each end. The 
erection of the whole was superintended by Apollodorus, the architect of the 
Forum, and of Trajan's Column at Rx)me. The bridge was destroyed seventeen 
years after its erection, by Adrian, in the year 120, upon pretence of securing 
the frontiers against the incursions of the barbai-ians, or, as some say, through 
mere jealousy. 

The last relic of this period which we shall notice is one in some respects more 
interesting than any. 

About two leagues from Karansebes, upon a hill in the midst of a charming 
landscape, stands a small square tower of great antiquity. This is known as 
OvicPs Tower, and popular tradition asserts that in it the poet was confined, when 
he was banished by Augustus, professedly because of the immorality ot his 

b2 



4 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

treatise " De Arte Amandi," but in reality for some crime which history has 
not recorded. Classical scholars and commentators assert that his real place of 



,^> j.^ . 



^:^^'^- 



?^ 








oytd's towek. 




Trajan's tablet on the danube. 



banishment was Tomi, in Thrace ; but the popular tradition which transfers it to 
this romantic spot will, without doubt, in the case of most people, outweigh 



KOMAN FERIOD. 

the soberer testimony of history. An English tourist, '^ who has given a good 
deal of attention to the subject, sides with the Transylvanians, and in support of 
his arguments, asks, and not without plausibility, where could Ovid with more 
of truth than in this country have exclaimed, 

" Lassus in extremis, jacio, populisqiie locisque 
Heu quam vicina est ultima terra mihi ! " 

It scarcely falls within our province to balance the arguments on either side. 




BUINS OF THE GOTHIC CHURCH OF ZAMBEK, 

It is at least certain that the memory of Trajan and Ovid still lives amongst the 
Wallacks ; and the peasant of the valley of Temes still tells, with an air of 
authority, that when the Koman army passed that way, the soldiers crowded 
eagerly to visit the prison in which their great countryman had been confined. 



* Paget's " Hungary and Transylvania," London, 1839. 



6 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

After the Roman power had been overthrown, and the crowd of unknown races 
rushed across the Danube and laid waste Pannonia, Dacia, and Dalmatia, no 
people, of all those who from time to time occupied Hungary, left any permanent 
records of their stay except the Goths. These were converted to Christianity, at 
a very early period of their occupation, by a bishop named Ulphus, and in the 
ruins of their religious edifices which still remain, we have ample testimony to 
the ardour of their faith, and the rapid progress in the arts which they had made 
through contact with the people whom they had vanquished in arms. 

One of the most beautiful of these relics is the ruins of the Gothic church of 
Zambek. It is supposed to have been built by the Visigoths, who, when dominant 
in Hungary, sent forth armies ±o the conquest of Italy, Sicily, Gaul, and Spain. 
It is a splendid specimen of the first attempt at a style of architecture which has 
since covered Europe with some of the grandest monuments which have ever been 
raised in honour of religion. 



CHAPTER II, 

THE HUNS — ATIIIA.— A.D, 337-453. 

The vast plains to the north of China, from time immemorial, were peopled, or 
rather possessed, by a number of hardy nonaade tribes, who were known to the 
Greeks and Romans under the general appellation of Scythians, and who bid 
defianee to the mightiest conquerors of the ancient world. The skill and 
discipline of the armies of Cyrus and Alexander were useless against a foe 
whose valour exhausted itself in a single onset, or in distant discharges of arrows, 
and whose retreats were so rapid that pursuit was out of the question. Their 
whole wealth lay in their horses, flocks, and herds. They were bound by no tie to 
any one spot on the vast expanse of their native steppes more than to another. 
Removal caused them no regret, for they left behind neither houses nor the fruits 
of labou.r. The worst that an invader could do vv^as to drive them prematurely 
from a luxuriant pasturage, but without reaping any reward for his pains. 
Wherever he turned he found himself assailed in flank and rear by an active 
and vigilant enemy, who continually attacked, but never gave battle. Dis- 
comfiture and disaster were the unvarying result of all the attempts we read of 
that Avere made to subjugate them. But in those early times in no instance 
were they the offenders. If unmolested, they were content to roam peaceably 
from one grassy plateau to another ; and they were known to the v/estern nations 
only as a distant and barbarous people, of exceeding fierceness, who skirmished 
on horseback, and whose subjugation was the topmost point in the ambition of 
their great military leaders. 

But to the old and civilised empire of China they proved troublesome 
neighbours. When chance brought them to the borders of the celestial dominions, 
they could not help looking with greedy eyes upon the wealth and magnificence 
which the skill and industry of the inhabitants had created, and the Great Wall 
remains to our day a gigantic testimony to the fierceness of their marauding 
attacks and the terror with which they inspired the Chinese. The latter, with 
rare condescension, ascribe to these Tartars an origin as remote as their own. 
Their historians relate that previous to the year 200 B.C., many dynasties had 
reigned over them, and that they had had chiefs and legislators, renowned for 
their valour and wisdom, who ruled an extent of territory wider than that of the 
Roman empire in its palmiest days. The same authority informs us that under 
the reign of an emperor rejoicing in the euphonic appellation of Pou-nou-Tanjou, 



g HISTOKY OF HUNGARY. 

a great nation amongst these Tartars or Scythians,— the Huns became greatly 
enfeebled by a devastating famine, and that their old enemies, taking advantage 
of their forlorn condition, proceeded to wreak vengeance upon them for all their 
former outrages. So heavily did the weight of their misfortunes press upon them, 
that they determined to separate into two tribes or divisions, one of which 
was subjugated, and remained in bondage on their native soil for a long period. 
The other, called the northern tribe, set off in search of a newcountry and better 
fortune. This was about the year 87 of the Christian era. 

After having wandered about Asia for more than two centuries, this tribe had 
the hardihood once more to attack the Chinese, who, however, inflicted upon them 
so signal a defeat, that they turned their faces towards Europe, and bid adieu to 
Asia for ever. This was the commencement of that series of inroads upon the 
Roman empire which ended in its fall. The southern Huns, some centuries 
afterwards, followed the example of their brethren, and appeared in Europe under 
the name of Turks, and established their head-quarters in Constantinople. It is 
from the former, however, that the modern Hungarians claim descent, and to 
them, therefore, our attention must be confined. 

But if we omitted to mention that a great deal of what we have been here 
stating rests upon no better foundation than vague tradition, which national, and 
certainly pardonable, vanity puts forward as history, Ave should be concealing a 
part of the truth. Very little of what the Chinese tell us of their own origin is 
credible, and the temptation to give exaggerated accounts of the power and 
numbers of the Huns was increased by the fact, that the greater their strength 
could be made to appear, the greater would be the glory of having defeated and 
expelled them from their territory. Gibbon is of opinion that the connexion 
between the modern Hungarians and the ancient Huns, in point of descent, is 
feeble and remote in the extreme, but he acknowledges the identity in origin of 
the Turks and Magyars. Recent philological researches have, however, gone far 
to show that the Fins, the Turks, Magyars, as well as the Mogols, and the less 
civilised Tartars of central Asia, all belong to the same stock, just as the different 
nations of modern Germany ; but in the vast political changes which they have 
undergone, have lost their similitude of language. This question of origin, how- 
ever, is one which, with regard to nations as with regard to great men, it is almost 
always difiicult to settle satisfactorily. It is, therefore, gratifying to know, that in 
neither case is it of much moment, and in ceasing to trouble its headabout it the 
world shows that it is making some advance in good sense. 

When the Huns precipitated themselves upon Europe, they found that the 
Goths and Vandals had preceded them, had done their share in the work of devas- 
tation, and were already enfeebled by luxury and success. They drove them 
before them triumphantly, and abandoned themselves without restraint to plunder 
and rapine. But they, too, soon exhausted their strength in intestine quarrels 
and petty predatory excursions, so that their power seemed on the point of disso- 



TliE HUJ^S — ATTILA. 9 

lution, when a leader arose in the person of Attila, whose valour, ferocity, and 
ability restored to their name its ancient terror. , 

His uncle and predecessor, Rugilas, was a, man of great power and ability, and 
was distinguished by his warlike exploits. In his time, beyond all doubt, the 
Huns did encamp in the country now called Hungary, and thus placed, as it were, 
midway between the eastern and the western empires, were enabled to keep both 
in a continual state of alarm. At the solicitation of the celebrated consul Aetius, 
on behalf of the usurper John, Rugilas, upon one occasion, marched 60,000 men 




to the very borders of Italy ; but nothing short of the total cession of the province 
of Pannonia was sufficient to induce them to return. He also threatened Con- 
stantinople itself, and with such appearance of sincerity, that Theodosius, the 
Greek emperor, was obliged to ward off his displeasure by the payment of an 
annual tribute of 3001bs. of gold. So open an acknowledgment of the greatness 
of their power was not the Avay, however, to pacify the rude barbarians, whose 
impatience occasionally broke through all bounds ; and war was impending, and 
only prevented by tedious negotiations, when Rugilas died. (a.d. 434). His 
nephews, Attila and Bleda, succeeded him, and by them a treaty was concluded, 



10 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

by which the unfortunate Greeks underwent still greater humiliation. Bleda was 
soon deposed and executed, and Attila became the sole sovereign of the Hunnic 
nation. This extraordinary man is claimed by the Magyar historians as one of 
their kings, and this, independently of the wonderful part he played in the history 
of his time, entitles him to a full share of our attention. The modern Hungarians 
trace his .descent till, in the thirty- fifth degree, it reaches Ham, the son of Noah ; 
but, unfortunately, they are not acquainted with the real name of his father. He 
himself, with less ambition, was content to deduce it from a noble or royal house 
amongst the old Huns who had battled with the Chinese along the Great Wall. 
The only descriptions of him that have come down to us have been traced by the 
hands of enemies, who had every reason for hating him, and A^ery little scruple 
about doing him injustice. His portrait, however, presents all the features which 
characterise a Calmuck Tartar at the present day — a large head, swarthy com- 
plexion, deep-seated eyes, a flat nose, a few hairs in place of a beard, and a short 
sqtiare body possessing great muscular strength. But. whatever might be the 
disadvantages of his jaersonal appearance, he had the soul of a hero. In his 
walk, in his look, almost in every act of his life, he gave evidence of conscious 
superiority to the rest of mankind. He had a custom of rolling his eyes in a 
peculiarly fierce fashion, and seemed highly to enjoy the terror Avhich his very 
looks inspired. He was fond of war, and was undoubtedly in possession of great 
personal courage ; but it was not his mere valour which gained him sway over his 
countrymen, so much as his skill in working upon their passions and credulity. 
The latter is a prominent characteristic in all barbarous nations. The more won- 
derful an affair is, and the less support it receives in the shape of evidence derived 
from experience, the greater is their disposition to believe it. Craft, therefore, is 
the quality which amongst them is the surest guarantee of power and influence. 
In Attila this was united with great military talent, an iron will, and a command- 
ing presence. By making a good use of the national superstition, he gained an 
ascendancy over his countrymen which no amount of warlike success could ever 
have bestowed upon him. The Huns, like all other nations of antiquity, wor- 
shipped the god of war with more than ordinary devotion ; but too. rude to mould 
a statue, they adored him under the form of an iron scimitar. One of their shep- 
herds having perceived a wound in the foot of a heifer, followed the track of the 
blood, till it led to an old sword sticking up out of the ground. He dug it up 
and presented it to Attila, who received it with a devout air, declared that it was 
the sword of Mars, and that he, as its possessor, had a divine right to the dominion 
of the earth. He henceforth assumed, in the eyes of his subjects, the character 
of a deity, in whose service it Avas as honourable to fight as it Avas glorious and 
fortunate to die. 

He may be said from this time to have divided the empire of the Avorld Avith the 
Ilomans. They possessed the civilised portion of it — he the barbarian. jX ot only 
did he hold undisputed sAvay over the Scythian tribes, but over the German also. 



TITK TIUNS — ATM LA. H 

The Franks and Burgundians trembled at his nod ; lie received a tribute of furs 
from the cold regions of northern l^kiropc, which more civilised potentates had 
assailed in vain ; his power was felt on the banks of the Volga ; the Geuo-ens 
thought him a magician, who, by means of the enchanted stone gezi, coidd excite 
storms of Avind and rain. He made an alliance upon equal terms with the 
Emperor of China, and the great and powerful tribe of the Ostrogoths were 
ahiongst the most submissive of his supporters. All the kings and chiefs — and 
their name was legion — who acknowledged his supremacy, took it in turn to 
attend on his person as guards and domestics ; and when he took the field, 
he could muster an army of five, or as some say seven, hundred thousand 
men. 

When Attila ascended the throne, he was by no means disposed to continue the 
negotiations which his uncle had been carrying on with the Greek emperor 
Theodosius, and only wanted a pretext for commencing hostilities. This was a 
thing which no barbarian ever wanted long, and particularly a Hun in the fifth 
century. A free market was at that time held on the northern, or Himnic, side of 
the Danube, under the protection of a lloman fort called Constantia. The Huns one 
day made a foray into the market-place, killed the traders, and levelled the fortress 
witli the ground, and justified the outrage by asserting that it was committed 
by way of reprisal for the trespass of the Bishop of Margus, who entered their 
territory with the design of discovering and concealing a secret treasure belonging to 
their king, and they demanded the extradition of the prelate, and of those who 
aided and abetted him. But the Byzantine court had not yet reached so low a 
pitch of degradation as to surrender a Christian into the hands of pagans, and 
refused to comply. The people of Margus were amongst the first to applaud the 
emperor's firmness. When the Huns, however, crossed the frontier with fire and 
sword, and destroyed two towns in their immediate vicinity, the citizens changed 
their minds, and began to think of surrendering the bishop themselves. But that 
worthy individual, however, was not of opinion that a bishop should be sacrificed to 
save a town, but, on the contrary, that a town ought to be, by all means, sacrificed 
to save a bishop. Ho, therefore, sent a secret message to Attila, secured his pardon 
by a solemn oath of allegiance, and testified the sincerity of his submission by 
opening with his own hand, at an appointed hour, the gates of the city to a 
chosen band of the barbarian army. 

The career of the invader was after this but a series of successes. Town after 
town fell before him, and the Avhole extent of Europe, from the Euxine to the 
Adriatic, was laid waste and desolate. The Roman armies, hastily collected from 
various quarters of the empire, wanted both the courage and the skill to make an 
effectual resistance. They were defeated in three successive battles, and the 
ravages of Attila were extended to the very walls of Constantinople itself. 
tScvcnty cities of the eastern empire, rich in all that the art, iiidustry, and 
commerce of the time could achieve or collect, and crowded by a busy, civilised, 



12 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

and luxurious population, were totally destroyed and up-rooted, so that nothing 
save charred and blackened ruins marked their sites. From this one fact alone 
some idea may be formed of the ferocity of the invader, and the terrible calamities 
the unfortunate inhabitants had to undergo. Gibbon *' endeavours, in the absence 
of all positive testimony upon the subject, to form some idea of the treatment of 
the vanquished by the Huns, by supposing an analogy between their practice and 
that of the Moguls, men of the same race and same manners. The mode of 
procedure followed by the latter upon the capture of a town has been accurately 
recorded. The inhabitants, if they had surrendered at discretion, were assembled 
in some open space near the city, and divided into three classes. The first, 
consisting of the young men able to bear arms, \yere either enlisted^ in the ranks of 
their conquerors, or slaughtered on the spot. The second, consisting of young and 
beautiful women, artificers, professional men, or merchants, from whom a ransom 
might be expected, were distributed in equal shares. The remainder, consisting of 
the old, and decrepid, and poor, were dismissed, with contemptuous pity, and 
obliged to pay a tax for being permitted to live amidst the ruins of their 
homes. 

But all this took place only when the conquerors had been received with abject 
submission. The smallest amount of resistance, a smile, a look, which could be 
construed into a token of defiance, were sufficient to cause the massacre of the 
population of a whole province. Acts like these caused a hermit in some cave in 
Gaul to apply to Attila the epithet of The Scourge of God, and the tradition runs, 
that on its reaching his ears it so pleased the haughty conqueror, that he adopted 
and inserted it amongst the titles of royal dignity ; and so great was the terror that 
his very name inspired, that in the far-off" provinces of the empire, it was commonly 
believed by the people that the grass never grew on the spot where his horse had 
once trod. 

In this war great numbers of the Romans were carried off captive to the 
Huns, and employed as domestic slaves. Those who could exercise some useful 
handicraft, such as masons, smiths, armourers, were highly valued and well 
treated. The clergy were respected ; lawyers were despised or abhorred ; physic 
cians, naturally enough, held the highest rank in their estimation ; but the lowest 
of all in the scale Avere the Greek sophists or philosophers. All these, however, 
notwithstanding their servile condition, must have been the means of diffusing 
amongst their masters a taste for the arts, and love for the luxuries of civilised 
life. 

The conditions of peace which Attila imposed upon the Greek emperor were 
humiliating enough. Theodosius was compelled to surrender a fertile tract of 
country lying along the southern bank of the Danube, fifteen days' journey in 
breadth, or according to others only five ; f to promise an annual subsidy of 

* Vol. III. p. 233, Milman's Edition. f Niebuhr's Byz. Hist , p. 147. 



THE HUNS — ATTILA. 



13 



2,100lbs. of gold, and to pay Avithout delay 6,C00lbs, of gold to defray the 
expenses of the war. The treasury was exhausted at this period by the cost 
of military preparation and the shameless extravagance of the court, so that the 
latter demand had to be met by a personal contribution imposed upon the 
members of the senatorial order, and rigorously exacted. Attila was so impatient, 
or the nobles were so poor, that they had to raise the amount by the public sale of 
their wives' jewels and the heir-looms of their palaces. Among the latter, 
according to Chrysostom, every wealthy house possessed a semicircular table of 
massive silver, such as two men could scarcely lift ; a vase of solid gold weighing 
forty pounds, and cups and dishes of the same metal. 




FLASK, CUP, AND CAMEO BEARING A MINIATURE OF ATTILA. 



The third and last condition was more humiliating than all ; it stipulated that 
all Huns, Avho had been taken prisoners in war, should be restored without 
ransom ; that all Roman prisoners, who had effected their escape, should pay 
twelve ounces of gold each, and that all barbarian deserters from the standard of 
the conqueror should be delivered up Avithout promise or condition. The 
performance of this part of the agreement occupied a considerable length of time. 
It was an easy matter to restore the captured Huns, but it was by no means easy 
to oblige the Romans, who had made their escape from captivity, to pay a ransom, 
or to oblige the deserters, who had fought under the imperial standard, to return 
to a certain and cruel death. 

Almost every week embassies arrived from Attila to re^aroach the Roman 



14 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

emperor in haughty terms with the delay in carrying out the treaty, and to declare 
that he could with difficulty restrain the impatience of his followers. Theodosius 
did the best he could to appease the anger of the barbarian, by making rich 
presents to the envoys ; and the private secretary of the king of the Huns having 
demanded a Avealthy and noble Roman wife, his master supported his request with 
such zeal as to make it an affair of state. After a good deal of hesitation, a rich 
widow, a woman of great beauty, and renowned amongst the aristocratic matrons 
of the day for her virtues, was selected as the victim, for so her friends considered 
her. When this had been resolved upon, Attila demanded that the Romans 
should send an embassy to him in return for the many that he had sent to them. 
His request was complied with it, and it is to this that we owe most of our 
knowledge of the manners and customs of the Huns, and of the usages in force at 
the court of their king. The chief of the embassy was a certain Maximin, a 
courtier of considerable talents, both civil and military, and he invited his friend, 
Priscus, the historian, to accompany him. The latter has recorded every 
circumstance of their journey and reception, as Lord Macartney his progress to 
the court of the celestial empire ; and his relation gives us a curious insight into 
the manners of the time, as well as places in ominous contrast, along every step of 
the way, the haughty insolence of the Huns and the fallen pride of the Romaiis, 
courtly and magnificent even in their degradation. 

They made their first halt at Sardica, where the Romans gave a banquet to the 
barbarian envoys, who were returning with them from Constantinople ; and Priscus, 
with quaint minuteness, tells us what one ^aid to another at the table, of the 
quarrel which arose between the representatives of the two nations, and of the , 
presents that were made to heal the breach. Proceeding thence upon their way, 
the Romans soon saw enough to make them tremble for the fall of the empire and 
the imperial city, and convince them that the existence both of one and the other 
depended on the nod of Attila. They found Naissus — which had been a mighty 
city in its time, and had given birth to the great Constantine, whose name, in his 
day, had made barbarians tremble — a heap of blackened ruins, amongst which a 
few sick and cripples, whom the conquerors thought beneath their vengeance, found 
a precarious shelter ;"and all along, for many a mile beyond, the bones of the slain 
lay thick on the ground, like the track of a plague-stricken caravan in the Arabian 
deserts. Upon entering Hungary, they passed rapidly through the forests and 
over the rivers in small canoes, until they arrived in the neighbourhood of the 
royal camp. Attila haughtily forbad them to pitch their tents upon an eminence, 
becaixse his were below upon the plain ; ' and sent messengers to them, to whose 
keeping they were requested to commit their business and instructions. Upon 
their making the well-foimded objection, that this woiild not only be disrespectful 
to their own sovereign but in direct contravention of the established law of nations, 
they received no decisive answer, but were compelled to undertake a long and 
toilsome journey to the north, so that Attila might have the satisfaction of receiving. 



THE HUNS ^ATTILA. 15 

at one-and the same time in his camp, envoys from both the eastern and western 
empires. During this long circuit they were supplied plentifully with provisions 
from the neighbouring villages ; mead indeed instead of wine, millet in place of 
bread, and a certain liquor, called eomus, distilled from barley — trough fare certainly 
when compared with the dainties of Constantinople, but under the circumstances 
very acceptable. Upon one occasion they were overtaken, when encamped upon 
the edge of a morass, by a violent storm, which overturned their tents, drenched 
themselves and their baggage, and sent them wandering in the darkness along 
unknown roads. They at last reached a village, the property of the widow of 
Bleda, Attila's murdered brother. The good lady roused her people, prepared a 
blazing fire of reeds, before which the travellers dried their garments ; and she 
appears to have embarassed them by her singular politeness, in placing at their 
disposal a number of beautiful and obliging maidens. In return for all these 
kindnesses, they presented her with silver cups, red fleeces, dried fruits, and 
Indian pepper. After this they fell in with Attila's march, and at last reached 
his capital. 

About its precise situation there has been an immense deal of disputation. 
Gibbon only guesses at it ; the description of Priscus is too vague to enable 
us to come to any positive conclusion ; so that Ave are at last compelled to fall 
back upon the popular tradition, which, in the matter of places, is seldom far 
from the truth. According to this, it was on the spot where the modern village of 
Jasbereny now stands, in the midst of the district inhabited by the Jasyges, between 
the Danube, the Teyss, and the Carpathian Hills, in the plains of Upper Hungary. 
These Jasyges, though now mingled with the Magyar population, had inhabited 
the country from a very early period.; and it is even said, that when the Emperor 
Trajan marched against the Dacians, they follov/ed his standard as auxiliaries. 
They were distinguished by the rapidity of their evolutions, by their courage, and 
by their armour. Both horse and man were clothed in mail of very stout texture, 
which rendered them almost invulnerable. They were extremely dexterous in the 
use of the bow and arrows, and were able to launch javelins both in front and 
towards the rear at the same moment. Their descendants may still be distinguished 
by the pure orientalism of their accent and intonation, and by their daring feats of 
horsemanship, which caused them, during the last war, to be numbered amongst 
the ablest defenders of the national liberty. 

In the midst of these, according to the most probable accounts, Attila fixed 
his camp. It was at best but a huge village, composed of rows of tents, 
which the king's long residence here had rendered permanent ; it afforded ample 
accommodation, however, for the host of servants, retainers, and tributaries, who 
followed the march of the barbarian conqueror. The habitations of the common 
soldiers were merely huts of mud and straw, but those of higher rank dwelt 
in wooden houses, in which there was some attempt at a display of rude 
magnificence, and the nearer the palace of the king the more honourable the posi- 



16 HISTORY OF HtlNGAllY. 

tion. The palace itself was built entirely of wood, and covered an immense space 
of ground ; it was surrounded by a lofty wall, also of wood, flanked by high towers. 
Inside this enclosure lay the houses of all who were attached to the royal person. 
Each of the king's wives had separate apartments. The mansion of Cerca, the 
queen, was supported on lofty round columns, and the wood was curiously carved and 
turned. When the ambassadors paid her a visit, not only were they graciously 
received, but, such was the charming simplicity of her manners, were all permitted 
to kiss her. When they first saw her, she was reclining on a carpet, and 
her maids around her engaged in some sort of embroidery, just as we may suppose 
any of the ladies in the days of chivalry, or even in later times, passed the long 
hours in their husbands' gloomy castles. The interior of the houses of the nobles 
was profusely decorated with gold and silver plate and ornaments ; their swords, 
and shoes, and bucklers, were set with jewels ; and they dined off plates and vases 
of the precious metals which the Greek captives had made. But in the palaces of 
the monarch the severe simplicity of the ancient Scythians still reigned. He and 
his household eat off wooden platters ; flesh was their only food, for bread was a 
luxury that the great chief never tasted. Other curious details of Attila's domestic 
life have been handed down to us, and they all display the same mixture of severe 
simplicity and barbaric pomp. 

Amongst those who accompanied the Romans from Constantinople was an 
ambassador of the Huns named Edecon, who, during his stay .at the imperial 
court, had been induced by a large reward to enter into an engagement to 
murder his master upon reaching home. This had been effected through the 
instrumentality of a eunuch named Chrystaphius, and with the full cognizance and 
approbation of Theodosius. At the eleventh hour Edecon repented, and revealed 
the plot to Attila. The latter, with a high-minded heroism which in a Pagan 
contrasted favourably with the baseness of the Christian emperor, sent a message 
full of stern rebuke to Constantinople, and contemptuously pardoned the delin- 
quents. Theodosius did not long survive this humiliation : his horse fell when out 
hunting, and, by breaking his rider's neck, ridded the world of a base and 
effeminate tyrant. 

His sister Pulcheria succeeded to the imperial throne, and soon after married 
a senator of high standing named Marcia. This man had ideas of Roman dignity 
which would have been better suited to the days of Julius Csesar than his own, 
and upon Attila pressing for the payment of the tribute, he returned a haughty 
and disdainful answer. The barbarian king instantly prepared to invade the 
empire. But he affected to despise the eastern empire, and determined to 
postpone the conquest of it until he had overthrown the western. This was not, 
however, so easy a matter as he imagined. The leader of the Roman armies at 
this time, a lieutenant of the emperor Valentinian, was Aetius, " the thrice- 
appointed consul," to whom " the wretched Britons" vainly sent " their groans 
and tears," when fiercely attacked by the wild hordes of the northern highlands — 



THE FKINCESS HOJSOKIA. 17 

a man of great military talents, who for twenty years was tlie stay and support of 
the declining majesty of Rome. Through his tact and dexterity, an alliance was 
entered into with the powerful nation of the Visigoths, the ancestors of the 
modern Spaniards, who at that time possessed the southern part of the province 
of Gaul, and he was thus enabled to present a formidable front to the invader. But 
Attila was not easily daunted, and with such a host as he could muster he should 
have been a mighty warrior who could have stayed his progress. 

But even in that rude age the still small voice of right and justice was heard, 
though in faint accents, above the din of arms, and the loud clamour of the camp ; 
and it reached even the ears of Attila, fierce fighting-man though he was, who had 
marched to power and fame across hundreds of thousands of corpses. He had 
the men, the horses, the armour, the courage, the skill, and prestige, necessary 
to assure him of sviccess in his enterprise. There was but one thing wanting, — a 
reasonable excuse that would satisfy his own conscience, and do homage to the 
public opinion of the world. The emperor of the east had refused to pay him the 
tribute his predecessor had agreed upon, and had accompanied his refusal with 
insidt. But from Valentinianhe had received no wrong. The pretext came at last 
in a way that he little expected, by an affair which might well be considered a piece 
of incredible romance, if it were not verified by the unanimous testimony of 
contemporary historians. Valentinian, the Roman emperor of the west, had a 
sister named Honoria, to whose beauty not written descriptions merely, but 
medals still extant, testify. Her brother feared that if married, her husband might 
prove a dangerous rival, and in order to elevate her above the hopes of any of his 
subjects, he bestowed upon her the title of Augusta. Honoria felt but little pride 
in her new greatness, and never ceased to deplore the unhappy fate which had 
placed a bar between her and the gratification of the fondest Avish of a woman's 
heart. At the age of sixteen, in a moment of weakness or folly, she so far forgot 
herself as to favour the advances of her chamberlain Eugenius. Her shame soon 
became apparent, and was made more widely known by her banishment from the 
imperial court, after a long term of imprisonment. The unhappy princess fixed her 
residence at Constantinople, and passed her time in retirement, brooding over her 
sorrows and misfortunes. While here, she daily heard the name of Attila on every 
lip. His ambassadors passed frequently in barbaric pomp before her window, and 
many were the wild stories that were told of their master's power, and valour, and 
ferocity. Whether it was that she wished to revenge her disgrace upon her 
relatives at Ravenna, or that her imagination, nursed and strengthened by suffering 
and solitude, was dazzled by the splendour of success — always so powerful in iis 
influence on weak minds — and pictured the barbarian conqueror as the ideal of her 
dreams, the soul of poetry and love, will never be known ; but, at all events, she cast 
aside not only the prejudices by which Roman women had been bound for more than 
a thousand years, and which in their eyes rendered the daughter of the humblest 
citizen too good for a foreign king, but all the restraints which nature, as well as 

c 



Ig HISTORY 0¥ HUNGARY. 

custom, has in every age imposed upon her sex, and wrote to Attiia, offering him 
her hand, and sending him a ring as the gage of her love. Her proposal was at 
first received with cold and silent contempt ; but when he came to perceive the 
vantao-e ground upon which it Avould place him in a quarrel with Valentinian, it 
was eagerly accepted, and her hand formally demanded of her brother. In all 
his weakness and danger, the emperor still retained some spark of the family 
pride of the old Roman patrician, and the demand was peremptorily refused, and 
Honoria shut up in a prison, from which she never issued in life. 

Attiia instantly invaded Gaul at the head of a numerous host. All the nations 
of Germany and Scythia, from the Danube to the Volga, thronged to his standard ; 
and \Vhen he poured his myriads across the frontier, city after city fell before 
him, notwithstanding the performance of divers miracles by the patron sdnts of 
the various localities, which our space will not permit us to record — an omission 
the less to be regretted, however, as they do not seem to have had the smallest 
influence upon the general results of the invasion. 

At last the Huns laid siege to Orleans, but all their attacks were baffled by the 
courage of the inhabitants, until the arrival of the combined army of the 
Visigoths and Romans compelled them to raise the siege. Attiia then retreated 
into the great plain around Chalons, then known as the " Catalonian Fields," and 
there offered battle (a.d. 451). For the first time in his life he seems to have been 
doubtful of the issue, and sought to animate the courage of his followers by a martial 
addresSj when on all other occasions his presence alone had been considered 
sufficient to ensure a triumph. 

The conflict which follov/ed was one of the bloodiest on record. The magnitude 
of the interests at stake, the skill and fame of the opposing leaders, the difference 
of race, language, and religion, the hopelessness of safety or escape in case of 
defeat— all combined to add fresh fuel to the ardour and animosity of the combat- 
atlts. There was but little attempt at manoeuvring. The total want of discipline, 
the wide dissimilarity in the arms, mode of fighting, manners, and language of the 
barbarians, precluded the possibility of any display of tactics on the part of the 
leaders^ so that the result was left entirely to the isolated efforts of individual 
valour. The battle began by a discharge of arrows and javelins, in which the 
superior dexterity of the Huns gave them the advantage, but these weapons were 
soon cast aside, and the cavalry and infantry, on both sides, closed in a frightful 
meUe. Theodoric, the king of the Visigoths^ Avas knocked off his horse by the 
stroke of a spear, and was trampled to death under the feet of the combatants ; 
and- Attiia, who exposed his person in the thick of the carnage^ was exulting in 
the confidence of victory, Avhen the rashness of the Huns gave an unexpected turn 
to the fortune of the day. They had broken through the Roman centre, but 
rushing forward with too great impetuosity, they were surrounded, attacked in 
the flank, and the darkness alone saved them from total destruction. They passed 
the night behind entrenchments formed of their waggons, in disheartened mood 



RAVAGES IN ITALY. 19 

enough, and Attila himself, with a ferocious desperation worthy of his past career 
and exploits, ordered the rich furniture of the cavahy to be collected into a funeral 
pile, ready to be fired, and on which, in case the enemy forced his position, he 
Avas ijrepared to end his life, rather than fall into their hands. 

But the Romans and Visigoths had purchased their victory too dearly to think 
of following it up by any such attempt. Between 160,000 and 200,000 men lay 
dead upon the field, nearly one-half of whom had belonged to the allied forces, and 
in those that remained were placed the hopes of the Western Empire. Aetius 
and Torismond, the son and successor of Theodoric, assembled their scattered 
forces and retreated, leaving Attila at liberty to pursue his march. The latter, 
after remaining for several days in his entrenchments, through fear of some 
trap or ambuscade, at last sallied forth and directed his course once more to 
Hungary, the Franks all the way hanging on his rear. His course was marked 
by the horrid cruelties perpetrated upon the inhabitants of the adjacent districts by 
the Thuringians, one of the tributary nations who served under his standard. 
They massacred hostages as well as captives ; and one is led to excuse the ferocity 
of the North- American Indians in the earlji- border wars, wli^en we read, that on 
one occasion during this retreat two hundred young maidens were first tortured 
with exquisitely ingenious cruelty, were then torn asunder by Avild horses, or 
crushed piecemeal beneath the wheels of baggage-waggons, and their remains 
abandoned to the dogs and the wolves. 

In the following spring (a.d. 452) Attila collected his forces afresh, and set out with 
the intention of invading Italy, and on reaching Aquileia laid siege to it as well as he 
was able, A siege in that age was a slow process, and the barbarians had neither 
the skill nor the patience which Roman armies would have brought to the work. 
But the town was at last carried by storm, after a breach had been eflfected by the 
aid of battering-rams, and though Aquileia was one of the most jDopulous and 
wealthiest cities of the western world, after this the site was scarce marked even 
by ruins. All modern Lorabardy fell before the resistless arms of the conqiieror. 
Vicenza, Verona, Milan, and Pa via Avere, sooner or later, obliged to open 
their gates and admit him, and the treatanent received by the inhabitants was 
good or bad in exact proportion to the amount of resistance they had off'ered. In 
Milan, Attila saw in the royal palace a picture which represented the Roman 
emperor seated in awful state upon a throne, and some Scythian princes prostrated 
in submission at his feet. He called for an artist, and with a ferocious smile 
ordered him to reverse the figures and attitudes — -place the Scythians on the 
throne, and the Caesars as suppliants. 

The King of the Huns was in the habit of boasting, that the grass never 
grew where his horse had once trod ; but it must for ever remain a striking 
monument of the vanity of earthly wisdom, and the weakness of human valour, 
that the ferocious conqueror of the western empire should have laid the founda- 

c 2 



20 HISTOKY OF HUNGARY. 

tion of one of the mightiest states of modern Europe ; and that the fierce bands, 
Avho gave form and consistency to feudalism, should also have provided a nursing 
mother for commerce and art. 

The province of Venetia, or Henetia, included, in ancient times, a large fertile 
tract of Italy, and was the seat of many flourishing and populous towns. Two of 
them, Aquileia and Padua, were the chosen residence of opulent knights and 
senators, and were renowned for the vast extent of their agricultural and manufac- 
turing industry. But when the barbarians for the first time entered Italy, and 
effaced Avhatever traces yet remained of the prestige of ancient power, this fertile 
garden was turned into a howling wilderness. Those of the population Avho, 
bereft of property and liberty, Avere still left in the enjoyment of a precarious 
and degraded existence, looked around for some refuge in which they might dwell, 
it might be in hardship, or perhaps in want, but at least in security. Within half 
an hour's sail of their coast, a hundred muddy islands rose feebly from the sluggish 
waters of the Adriatic. These sand-banks — for they were little else — were the 
deposits carried'down, during the course of many centuries, by the thirty rivers 
which discharge th^ir waters into this part of the gulf. The narrow channels 
which separated them could only be navigated by skilful and experienced pilots, 
and were a sure defence against the approach of a foreign invader. To these the 
terrified Venetians fled in crowds from the mainland ; and here, for many a year, 
noble families, who had been accustomed to revel in luxury, were content to earn 
a scanty subsistence by fishing, and the extraction of salt from the waters of the 
vsea. Cassiodorus compares them to water-fowl which had fixed their nests on the 
bosom of the waves, and expresses his earnest sympathy with their poverty and 
misfortune. Nothing tends so much to the groAvth and formation of energy and 
determination of character as a struggle against adverse circumstances and unpro- 
pitious fortune. Devotion and heroism, which slumber in the lap of prosperity, 
spring into life and action Avhen prosperity has deserted us and fled. The first 
efforts of the Venetians Avere directed towards the supply of the necessaries of a 
coarse and hard existence : but Avhen the continued exercise of self-reliance had 
proved more than sufficient to satisfy these demands, the desire for Avealth and its 
concomitant poAver rapidly succeeded. The far-famed Rialto— a sort of port to 
Padua — Avas already in existence, and other buildings began to spring up. Ships 
Avere built, an commerce and navigation extended. The foundation of some of 
the principal buildings Avas laid on the 25th of March, early in the fifth century ; 
" the day," says the old historian, " on Avhich Christ Avas conceived in the Avomb 
of the Virgin, and Adam, the parent of mankind, Avas formed by God.'" 
The neighbouring sands Avere soon peopled by other fugitives, and, Avith a 
feeling of devout thankfulness for the refuge they had found, the toAvnsmen 
of Altino gave to their adopted asylum the name of the " Port of the Deserted 
City." 

The barbarian conqueror AVas now encamped amidst the scenes AA'hich the 



THE RETREAT FROM ITALY. 



21 



m 













I. *. %^ 



22 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

genius and glory of the Augustan age had consecrated ; and groves and valleys, in 
which poets had mused and senators sauntered in luxurious indolence, rang with 
the loud laughter and coarse revelry of the northern soldiers ; and Attila at last 
declared his intention of marching upon the impeiial city itself. The emperor 
and the nobles sent him a deputation, headed by the wealthiest and proudest of 
the senators, humbly imploring him to spare the last relics of imperial greatness. 
Their request was granted upon condition that they paid him over Honoria's 
dowry as a ransom. This was done, and the army of the Huns once more turned 
homewards, as much surprised as the Romans at their master's moderation. But 
tradition says that it was not due altogether to a feeling of pity for the mis- 
fortunes of the vanquished, but to a superstitious fear of the conseqxiences of laying 
sacrilegious hands upon the majesty of the eternal city. The old men of the 
camjD whispered to hinl mysteriously that Alaric had not long survived his assault 
upon Rome ; and his imagination was still further impressed by the venerable 
aspect of Leo, the aged Christian bishop, who was one of the ambassadors sent to 
solicit his clemency. We suppose it was with the view of rendering the whole 
story more effective that the monks have related, that the blessed Apostles Peter 
and Paul appeared to Attila in the dead of the night, and threatened him with death 
if he did not desist from his enterprise. Whatever merit the legend may possess, 
it has been immortalised by Rapha^i, whose picture of the apparition still hangs 
in the Vatican. 

The conqueror, at all events (a.d. 453), turned his face once more towards home, 
threatening, however, to return in the'following year, more wrathful than ever if 
Honoria were not in the meantime delivered up to him. To solace himself in the 
interval, he added to the number of his wives a beautiful girl named Ildico, and the 
Avedding was celebrated with great pomp in one of his wooden palaces, close to 
the Danube. He and his bride retired to bed early, and at a late hour in the morn- 
ing they had not re-appeared. The attendants at last became alarmed, and 
entered the chamber. Ildico was weeping by the bedside, and on it Attila, the 
terror of the Avorld, lay dead. A blood-vessel had burst in the night, and he was 
suffocated by internal hemorrhage. It was reported by the Romans that his wife 
had slain him ; but, we believe, without any good foundation. His funeral rites 
were celebrated with great pomp, His body, covered by a silken pavilion, was 
placed in the midst of a plain, and the Huns rode round it in squadrons, singing his 
glory and exploits in measured strains, and lamenting him as a hero " glorious 
in his life, invincible in his death, the father of his people, the scourge of his 
enemies, and the terror of a world." To show their grief, they cut short their 
flowing hair, and, as so great a chieftain shoiild be mourned, not with women's 
tears, but the blood of warriors, they gashed their faces with frightful wounds. 
The body Avas then enclosed in three coffins — the first of gold, the second of 
silver, and the third of iron ; and thus he was buried, silently and in the dead of 
night ; and, that the prisoners who dug his grave might never insult the hero's 



THE AVARS. 23 

memory by engaging in any less sacred employment, they were all slaughtered on 
the spot. 

He was no sooner dead than the Hunnic empire went to pieces. It 
was built up by conquest, and it existed only as long as the conqueror 
was living to give it support and glory. The nations who had been bound 
together by admiration of his military genius or the terror of his arms, were 
once more left free to folloAv the dictates of their avarice or love of advehture. 
The Huns themselves dispersed or fell back upon Asia ; and from this time their 
primitive name no longer appears in history. Other tribes of the same family 
succeeded them upon the political arena, and the history of Pannonia for a long- 
period presents only the spectacle of incessant struggles. Before the entrance of the 
Huns into Europe, the country which is denominated Hungary at the present day, 
and which was the centre of their empire, had been peopled from remote ages by the 
Pannonians and lUyrians, races of Greek origin, with some mixture of Celtic 
blood. In the northern part, on the borders of the Danube, dwelt the Quadi and 
Marcomanni, two tribes often mentioned by Csesar in his Commentaries, who were 
Germanic in their origin. To the east, in modern Transylvania, Moldavia, and 
Wallachia, the great nation of the Dacians, belonging to the Thraco-Greek family, 
had established itself. Last of all, in a corner at the foot of the Carpathian 
Mountains, between the Quadi and the Dacians, were the Jazyges, a people 
belonging to the Sclavonic stock. The Huns found all these people in subjection 
to the Romans, or Goths. Their invasion had set in motion many other tribes of 
the same race as themseh^es, who were then .encamped near the shores of the Black 
Sea, in the way of the Asiatic races in their march towards Europe. The Avars, 
a branch of the Huns of the south, arrived upon the confines of Europe about the 
year 558. They resembled the Magyars of the present day, in their physiognomy 
and general appearance. The lightness of their complexion, and the regularity 
of their features, attracted the attention of the Greeks and Romans. They wore 
their hair in flowing tresses, tied with gaily- coloured ribbons, a custom which still 
prevails among the Magyar peasantry, but in other respects they were dressed as 
the Huns. 

This people precipitated themselves upon the Roman empire with the same 
violence as their predecessors, and established themselves in Pannonia. Their 
sway extended in 582, under their Khan Bayan, from Thuringia to Italy. In 64:6, 
having lost Dalmatia, and some other provinces in succession, they retained 
possession of Pannonia alone, and the countries bordering on the east. Charle- 
magne, who had extended his empire as far as the Ebro in Spain, resolved to 
drive them beyond the- eastern frontiers of Europe. It took four campaigns, 
however, when he was in the zenith of his power, to accomplish this. Having 
obtained possession of Upper Pannonia, he formed it into a margravate. One 
division of the Avars then returned to Asia, and the remainder became blended 
with the rest of the population, so that their famous name entirely disappeared 



24 IlISTOKY OF HUNGARY. 

from history. Their ruin Avas achieved by the same people who had overthrown 
the Hunnic empire. The Franks and Germans put an end to their domination 
after it had lasted for three centuries. 

Then came the Croats, from the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, to occupy 
the countries now knoAvn as Croatia and Dalmatia. Swatopluk founded in^ the 
north-west the kingdom of Great Moravia ; and the Bulgarians, who were another 
branch of the Hunnic race, established themselves in the countries lying to the east. 
It was about this time, also, that some other tribes of the Sclavonic family com- 
menced to settle in some parts of those districts, now known as Hungary and 
Transylvania. 



CHAPTER III. 

A.D. 884 — 954. 

THE MAGYARS— 'OKI GIN MANNERS FIRST APPEARANCE IN EUROPE — • 

THEIR RAVAGES IN GERMANY AND TTAEY FINAI- OVERTHROW 

BY 01 HO THE GREAT. 

The Magyar historians, anxious as they are to trace the descent of their country- 
men from so renowned a race as the soldiers of Attila, are still compelled to 
acknowledge that the connexion between them is so faint as to admit of no better 
proof or support than conjecture. That there was an affinity of origin and a 
striking resemblance of manners and customs between the Huns and the immediate 
ancestors of the modern Hungarians is a fact that hardly admits of dispute, but 
all evidence of any nearer relation was lost in the whirlwind of war, change and 
devastation, which for three centuries after the death of Attila swept the plains of 
Pannonia. 

The Hungarians first made their appearance in Europe about the year 884 of 
the Christrian era. Their national and oriental appellation was Magyar, but they 
were known to the Greeks as a tribe of Scythians, called Turks, from the same 
region as that from which the Huns had issued. They were undoubtedly the 
brothers of the fierce Mahometan hordes who afterwards overthrew the imperial 
city ; and it is said that they for a long time kept up a correspondence with their 
countrymen on the confines of Persia, and that when some of their missionaries, 
after their conversion to Christianity, visited the ancient seats of their ancestors, 
they were welcomed as kinsmen by the rude tribes which still lingered there, 
spoke the old language and. bore the name of Hungarians. 

The Magyars were first looked napon by the inhabitants of the western world 
as the Gog and Magog of the Scriptures,-" and their appearance as a warning that 
the end of all things was at hand. The clergy took the matter into their most 
serious consideration, but, unfortunately, could not come to any decision that 
would either allay or confirm the fears of their fiocks, imtil their response, what- 
ever it might have been, woidd have assumed the form of a prophecy after 
the event. And in truth there w^as good reason for alarm, and excuse enough 
for those freaks of imagination in which superstition and fanaticism are ever prone 

Milman's Gibbon, vol. v. p. 294. 



26 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

to indulo-e. The new. comers fell by no means below the standard of the Huns in 
uffUness or ferocity. jMen usually disfigure what they fear and hate, but after 
makino- all due allowance for the exaggerations of terror, we may presume there 
was enough in the manners and appearance of the invaders and in the wide- 
spread devastation which they committed, to enable the inhabitants of western 
Europe, whose condition already presented some resemblance to the peace and 
luxury of the empire, to connect them without difficulty with the bloodshed and ruin 
which the prediction had taught them should precede the second coming of 
the Lord. 

The Magyars were a people of Fennic origin, as is clearly proved by the 
affinity between the idioms of their language and those of the language of the 
Fennic race, a barbarous people who once occupied the northern parts of Europe 
and Asia. The name Ugri or Igours is still found in the countries bordering on 
the west of China, and a similar one has been discovered in the southern quarters 
of Siberia. The rem.ains of these Finnish tribes are now scattered thinly through 
northern Russia and Lapland. But how great the difference between Laplanders 
and Hungarians of the present day! — the one a hardy, athletic, warlike, and 
intellectual race, jealous of their independence and fond of oriental pomp, not 
in language only, but costume and stjde of living, the very types of life in its 
highest material development ; the other grovelling savages, wresting a scanty 
subsistence from an inhospitable climate and a barren soil, small in stature,- animal 
in their appetites, and possessing few marks of intelligence Avhich can be classed 
much higher than instinct. In comparing the two peoples, we are presented 
with an impressive lesson of the folly of associating peculiar traits of character 
with particular races, without reference to the circumstances by which they have 
been surrounded through a long course of years. Oppression would make slaves 
and liars of Spartans just as a polar climate has made Laplanders of Magyars. 

The tents of the Hungarians Avere of leather, and their garments of fur. They 
shaved their hair and scarified their faces. They Avere slow in speech and prompt 
in action. They possessed most of the vices as well as most of the virtues of 
barbarous nomade tribes. Pardonable national vanity has induced some Magyar 
historians to describe the social life of their forefathers as one of charming 
simplicity, in which the crimes, follies, and meannesses of civilisation were 
unknown. In this they are not alone. Shepherd hordes, from whatever cause, 
have in all ages been objects of admiration to those whom a more advanced stage 
of culture has fixed to one spot, and employed in the soberer pursuits of commerce 
or the tillage of the soil.- Arcadia has always been the chosen seat of simplicity 
and contentment. But in reality there is no connexion between herding 
flocks and roaming from place to place, and the practice of virtue, save in the 
imagination of poets and enthusiasts. The Magyars, like other nations in a 
state of barbarism, were content with what they had, only because they saw 
nothing better ; when they saw it, they coveted it, and used force to gain pos- 



MANNERS. 27 

session of it. Rvi.de warriors, -wliose proudest boast was their valour, aird to whom 
fighting was an exciting pleasure, they seldom, lied, because lying is a sign of fear 
and weakness ; but where force could not avail them, they had no hesitation in 
calling in the aid of fraud. Engagements and treaties, hovv^ever solemn, were 
readily broken, Avhen they could be broken with impunity. 

They supported themselves partly by fishing and hunting, and partly by 
keeping immense herds of sheep and oxen. Accompanied by the latter, they 
moved from place to place, abandoning each as soon as the pasturage became 
scanty. At the close of a day's march their tents were pitched, without order, and 
without defensive precaution, save what was afforded by their troops of light 
cavalry, which scoured the coimtry for miles round, and soon detected the 
approach of an enemy. When they first entered Europe, their only arms were 
the bow and arrow, in the use of which they possessed wonderful dexterity. From 
his earliest boj'hood every w^arrior was practised in horsemanship and archery. To 
ride boldly and aim surely were the two great accomplishments, to the acquisition 
of which his life was devoted. In the most rapid charge or most hasty retreat, he 
could discharge his arrows in any direction with equal force and precision, before, 
behind, or into the air. Onsets were made with disordered ranks, loosened reins, 
and wild cries, and the army fled without hesitation, if it were not at the first moment 
successful, but woe to the enemy that ventured too far in pursuit. He was soon 
taught that when the Magyars turned their backs it was no sign of fear, but part 
of a system of tactics. When successful, they made a terrible use of the victory^ 
As they never asked for mercy, so they never gave any. Their dreadful ferocitj^ 
astonished and horrified those who remembered the attacks of the Saracen and the 
Dane, and whose grandfathers had handed down to them traditions of the devas- 
tating vengeance of Attila. They not .only_ sacked and pillaged the toAvns, but 
slaughtered the inhabitants of every age and sex. This barbarian cruelty was 
relieved by one trait of honour and humanity. In their wildest ravages they 
never inflicted upon women any worse injury than death— and this shovN^s the 
existence, even then, of a spark of nobility, which has since kindled into the chi- 
valrous gallantry by which modern Hungarians are distinguished. In the laws they 
enacted for their own internal government, they evinced good sense and discern- 
ment, and a strong spirit of justice. Theft, as the commonest and most disgraceful 
offence in a camp, where all property Avas exposed, was punished with death, and 
all other crimes with less, but proportionate severity. 

Their manners in domestic life were simple as possible, The ceremony of 
marriage was unknown. A man lived v/ith one, or two, or three women, as 
inclination prompted or his means allowed, and some traces of this easy arrange- 
ment are to be found in some of the Magyar idioms at the present day. A man is not 
said to marry, but " make a house or a household."'" A Magyar virgin still calls 



Hdzassdg, hu^asodds , 

D 2 



28 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 



herself A«;ac/on. or " girl with uncovered hair; " the married women wear bonnets. 
There is still another phrase, meaning " a girl for sale !? which, perhaps, implies 
the existence of a custom in those primitive times, on the part of the bold warriors, 
of purchasing with money or cattle the partners of their domestic joys and sorrows. 
Some of their proverbs give evidence of a knowledge of higher and better princi- 
ples than their manners indicated : " The three things most conducive to happi- 
ness are, labour, sobriety, and moderation in pleasure." " Man's life is but a 




THE rANNOXIAX MOUNT. 



migration," &c. They measured time by the changes of the moon. Sunday received 
the name of vas, or vasarnap, from the circumstance that on that day Avas held a 
great iron-market, when they were settled in the vicinity of Mount Altai, in Asia."'-' 

Of their religious belief previous to their conversion to Christianity little is 
known. That they were monotheists is certain, for the word Isten, God, is the 
only word in the language, even to the present day, which expresses the idea of a 
supreme being ; but they sacrificed white horses, on some occasions, to demons of 
subordinate position, but whether good or evil cannot be ascertained. 

Their first conquests and final settlement in Europe extended beyond the 
Roman provhice of Pannonia, or the modern kingdom of Hungary. Up to that 
period it had been thinly occupied by the Moravians, a tribe of Sclavonian origin. 



* La Hongrie Historique. 



FIRST APPEARANCE IN EUROPE. 



29 



which Charlemagne had partially subdued. Their dukes, however, refused to 
obey his successors, and Arnulph invoked the aid of the Magyars to subdue them. 
The latter joyously answered to the call; but, having once entered the confines of 
the civilised world, they made up their minds never to return. During Arnulph's 
lifetime they remained peaceable ; but, during the minority of his son Lewis, they 
made such good use of their opportunities, that, in a single day, in the year 900, 
they laid waste a tract of country fifty miles in circumference. At the battle of 




ANCIENT MAGYARS. 

Augsburg, the Christian army was totally routed, and the Hungarians carried fire and 
sword through Bavaria, S wabia, and Franconia. To the terror they inspired the feudal 
castles and walled towns owe their origin ;* for both barons and burghers had to 
take precautions against the attacks of a foe who swept over the country with 
the rapidity and destructiveness of a simoom of the desert. The German empire 
was for thirty years compelled to pay tribute, through the fear of seeing put 



* Milman's Gibbon, vol. v. p. 300. 



30 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

jnto execution a threat to carry all the women and children into captivity, and 
slaughter all the males above the age of ten years. At last they ajjproached the 
confines of Italy, and pitched their camp on the Brenta. Bat they were surprised 
and alarmed at beholding the apparent strength and populousness of the country 
which lay beyond, and asked leave to retire. The Italian king, in the first flush 
of exultation, rashly refused it. In the battle which followed, 20,000 of his 
soldiers were slain, and his army totally defeated. The invaders now poured over 
the country like an avalanche. Pavia, the first city of the west in wealth and 
splendour, was burnt and plundered, forty-three churches being consumed in one 
day, and of the population only two hundred were spared, who bought their li-\ es 
by a quantity of gold and silver collected from amongst the smoking ruins. The 
churches that escaped during the inroads of which this was but the commencement, 
embodied in their litany the fearful prayer, " Oh, save and deliver us, thine unworthy 
servants, we beseech Thee, from the aiTows of the Hungarians !" 

" Nunc te rogamus, licet servi pessimi, 
Ab Ungerorum, nos defendas jaculis !" 

The sum of ten bushels of silver was paid as a ransom for Italian subjects who 
had fallen into the invaders' hands, and were threatened with death ; but 
it is said the latter Avere cheated in the settling of the account. The Hungarians 
next turned their attention to the eastern empire, routed the Bulgarians, and 
presented themselves before Constantinople. The Greeks were protected by their 
walls ; but one of the Magyar vvarriors, in a spirit of haughty defiance, rode up, 
and struck his battle-axe into the Golden Gate. They were at last, by the imited 
influence of tribute, expostulation, and entreaty, induced to retrace their steps, 
and leave the imperial city to be sacked two or three centuries later by another 
horde of the same race. 

At last, in the year 934, the power of the Hungarians was broken, and 
a stop put to their ravages by Henry the Fowler, and his son Otho the Great, two 
Saxon princes. The former rose from a sick bed to take the command of his 
army when he heard of their approach. He advised his coimtrymen to receive 
the first discharge of the Magyar arrows upon their bucklers, and prevent a 
second by closing with their lances. They obeyed his injunctions and Avon a 
complete victory, which Henry commemorated by having it painted upon the 
Avails of the great hall in his castle of Merseburgh. 

TAventy years afterAvards (954), Avhen Henry Avas dead, they again invaded the 
dominions of his son Otho the Great, Avith 100,000 horse, and passing the Rhine 
and the Meuse, penetrated to the heart of Flanders. The vigour and energy of 
Otho stayed the torrent. The German princes united against the common foe, 
and passed their combined forces in solemn revieAV upon the plains of Augsburg. 
They consisted of eight legions, composed of A^arious tribes from the diff'erent 
provinces. All the aid which religious devotion in a superstitious age could give 



DEFEAT BY OTHO THE GREAT. 31 

to support the courage of the troops, was called into requisition. They were 
purified by a fast, and the camp Avas blessed by the relics of the saints and martyrs. 
Otho girded on the sword of Constantino, the first that had ever conquered under 
the banner of the cross, grasped the spear of Charlemagne, and waved the banner 
of St. Maurice. He carried with him likewise, as his surest ground of hope, the 
holy lance, the point of which v/as made from the nails of the true cross, and 
which had been purchased from the Duke of Burgundy by the gift of a province. 
Thus fortified, the Christian Avarriors awaited the pagan onslaught. The Hunga- 
rians crossed the Lech secretly, and followed on the rear of the German army, 
plundered the baggage, and carried confusion into the ranks of the Swabian and 
Bohemian legions. The Franconians came to the rescue, and restored the fortune 
of the day, and the Saxons, incited by the example, and inspired by the voice of 
their leader, performed prodigies of valour, and achieved a victory surpassing in 
magnitude and importance any that had been won for three centuries before. 
The Hungarians were totally routed, and their retreat being cut off* by the rivers 
of Bavaria, they were slaughtered without mercy, their past cruelties having 
deprived them of all claim on the pity of their conquerors. Three of their princes 
were hanged at Ratisbon, and the fugitives who escaped were but too glad to settle 
down in weakness and disgrace iipon the plains from which they had so often 
issued to spread terror and dismay throughout Europe. There the Magyars 
mingled v/ith the Jazyges, the Moravians, and the Szeklers, and derived fresh energy 
from intermarriage with the thousands of robust captives whom they had carried 
from all parts of Europe in their forrays. They noAV began to adopt the customs 
of civilised life,, and established a regular form of government, under the most 
famous of their chiefs or chiJces, Arpad. The country Avas divided into a number of 
districts or counties, each governed by an electoral chief. Cities somewhat resem- 
bling those of the Romans, but ruder and less solid, began to spa-ing up. All 
great state aff'airs Avere decided by amounted assemblage of the Avarriors in the 
plains bordering on the river Teyss. The colonies of foreign races and the Avestern 
captives Avere suff'ered to pursxie their occupations in peace, and enjoyed the pro- 
tection of the law ; but the men of pure Magyar blood retained a supremacy, Avhich 
in later days ripened into the'modern Hungarian nobility. 



CHAPTER lY. 

A.D. 894—1095. 

THE DYNASTY OF ABPAD. 

Arpad reigned, in 894, over a million of Magyars, over whom 215,000 composed 
the armed force of the nation, and with wisdom in advance of his age, he devoted 
his attention to the consolidation of his power, as the surest means of securing 
it; and for this purpose he convoked an assemblage in a large plain, under 
the open sky, to consult upon the measures to be adopted. In this we find the 
origin of the Hungarian Diet, ^.nd of the privileges which the Magyars reserved 
to themselves alone, to the exclusion of the conquered tribes, and which at that 
time Avere necessary for the preservation of their conquests. The Magyars were 
all equal, and those of them who have not preserved their nobility down to the 
present day, have lost it in consequence of their long refusal to become converts 
to Christianity. Arpad's memory is still held in veneration amongst the Hun- 
garians, as he is considered the real founder of the nation. 

Of his immediate successors little is known. The Magyars were separated from 
the rest of Eiirope as well by language and religion as by the memory of their 
past cruelties and the dread of future inroads. The last instance upon record in 
which they revived the ancient terror of their name, was an attack upon Venice in 
the reign of Duke Zoltan, Arpad's successor. Under him the Magyar hordes once 
more abandoned the plains on which they had settled, and, forcing the passes of the 
Alps, penetrated to the shore of the Adriatic (a.d. 900). Excited by rumours of the 
wealth and magnificence of Venice, which even at that early period was renowned 
for the enterprise of her merchants and the extent of her commerce, they deter- 
mined to cross over and attack her. They hastily embarked in the first boats that 
came in their way, and Citta Nuovo, Equilo, Capo-dArgere, and Chiozza speedily 
fell victims to their fury. The chain of islands forming a sort of pier or jetty, the 
two extremities of which touch the mainland, was now invaded, and they Jiad 
but to cross the narrow arm of the sea which separates Venice from Malamoceo. 
Terror and disorder reigned in the capital. The Doge, Pietro Tribuno, hastily 
equipped the fleet, and rousing the courage of the Venetians by reminding them 
of their victory over Pepin in the same place and in as great an extremity, led 
them against the enemy. We can hardly suppose that the Magyars, unacquainted 
as they naust have been with the art of navigation, and provided only with such 



DEFEAT r.Y THE VENETIANS. ,33 

vessels as they happened to find in the ports on their route, were in a position to 
offer a vigorous resistance to the hardy and experienced sailors of the " city of the 
sea," There was little to sustain their courage save the thirst for plunder, and 
fury at being opposed when they had all but grasped it. The doge, profiting by 
his knowledge of the locality, and the dexterity and skill of his crews, speedily 
routed them. The majority made a hasty escape to the mainland, but the sea 




AKPAD. 



remained covered with the arms, clothing, and dead bodies of a great multitude 
of the slain. •'' 

The successor of the three terrible dukes, Arpad, Zoltan, and Zoxis, Geysa, 
married a Bavarian princess, and caused himself to be baptised into the Christian 
faith. During the reign of Charlemagne in Germany, missionaries had, under his 
auspices, made strenuous efforts to introduce the Christian religion into Himgary, 
and had been partially successful ; but no sooner was he dead than most of the 

* Daru's Ilisfoirr do la BepubliqKg de Tcirhe. 



34 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

converts relapsed into paganism, and the few who remained faithful to their 
principles were compelled to worship in secret, in order to escape the violence and 
persecution of their countrj'^men, who looked upon them as innovators and impious 
contemners of the religion of their forefathers. The Christians met by night, as 
the Roman churches had done eight centuries before, to celebrate the rites of 
baptism and the Lord's supper, and sought to keep alive the fire of faith by 
frequent intercourse with the people and clergy of the neighbouring nations. 

After Geysa had ascended the throne, his inclination towards the new faith Avas 
soon made manifest. Making due allowance for exaggeration in the eulogies 
which the church and the national historians have heaped upon him, he appears 
to have been a man superior in intellect, and perhaps in cultivation, to the mass of 
the people whom he was called ujDon to govern, and to have seen with regret that 
robb.ery and murder were looked upon by them as the only occupation worthy 
of Magyars. He perceived also the vast superiority possessed by the neigh- 
bouring nations in the arts and sciences and the comforts of life, and ascribed the 
whole, or at least the greater part of it to the religion they professed. He 
resolved to act the joart of Numa, and become the reformer of the creed as 
well as of the manners of his countrymen. He therefore collected great 
numbers of Christian missionaries from various parts of Europe to instruct them 
in the rudiments of the true faith. All the national prejudices were at once 
roused against him. The old Magyars, who recounted with pride the exploits of 
Zoltan and Zoxis, the dangers and glory of which they themselves had shared, 
and told how Italian mothers soothed their perverse children by the mere mention 
of the terrible warriors of Pannonia, were enraged at his departure from the 
faith in which their fathers and brothers had conquered and died; and the young 
men, and even the women, mocked at the effeminacy of a chief who Avas more 
intent upon empty ceremonial and the idle jargon of foreign priests than the 
exercises of the camp and preparation for war. The duke Avas, hoAvever, supported 
by the adjacent nations, particularly the Saxons, Avho Avere not a little pleased 
to see their troublesome neighbours about to undergo the softening influences of 
the Christian faith, and Avas thus enabled to bring his reign to a peaceful close 
without any open demonstration of discontent on the part of his subjects. He 
founded a considerable number of schools and colleges for the education of the 
clergy, and made some attempts to put doAvn robbery and murder — then but 
trifling offences in the eyes of the people, to whom it seemed almost natural that 
the Avarriors, Avho had inflicted so many evils upon foreigners, should noAV and 
then, by Avay of relaxation, turn their arms against their OAvn countrymen. He 
died without seeing the darling object of his life — the conversion of the nation — 
in reality much nearer its accomplishment than Avhen he commenced his reign ; 
but he had at least sown the seeds of Christianity. 

Upon his death, his son Stephen ascended the throne, of Avhose birth a curious 



IIEIGN OF ST. STEPHEN. 35 

story is told as to the means taken by the samts to announce to his parents the great 
destinies that were in store for their offspring. Its truth to us seems more than 
doubtful ; but as at the present day there are almost as many degrees in faith as 
varieties in physiognomy, we leave our readers to judge. 

The name of Geysa's wife was Saroltha, to Avhom, while pregnant, the proto- 
martyr Stephen appeared in a dream, and thus addressed her ; — " Woman, be of 
good courage, and put thy faith in Christ ; know that thou shalt bring forth a 
fortunate son, unto whom this kingdom shall be given. Such a wonderful man 
as he shall be Pannonia has never seen, nor after his death shall ever see again ; 
and after his departure he shall be numbered amongst the saints. I am Stephen, 
the protomartyr ; give him my name." 

Upon awakening, Saroltha returned thanks to God, and ordered masses to be 
said in honour of the saint upon all the christian altars in the kingdom ; and after 
her son's birth, he received in baptism the name of Stephen. The boy was care- 
fully educated, and his father, shortly before his death, presented him to the people 
in a solemn assemblage, expressing his belief that it was reserved for him to 
win them to civilisation and Christianity, as the Lord had appeared to him in a 
dream, and informed him that the jDart he had taken in war and rapine in his 
youth had unfitted him for succeeding in so holy a work. Stephen was immediately 
, saluted duke by the assembled warriors, and after his father's decease entered 
upon the government under the most favourable ausj)ices. Geysa's work of 
evangelisation was steadily carried out ; a:nd though the earlier part of his reign 
was disturbed by conspiracy and rebellion, his efforts were completely successful. 
Churches were built in • all parts of the country, parishes marked out, and priests 
appointed to their cure, and the ancient Scythian rites finally abandoned. The 
altars were decorated with sumptuous magnificence, and everything that eccle- 
siastical ingenuity could devise was displayed in profusion to impress the untutored 
imaginations of the people. Having accomplished to his satisfaction this change 
in the religion of the country, Stephen turned his attention to the chastisement and 
subjugation of the various tribes surrounding his dominions, who under his father's 
peaceful rule had grown insolent Avith impunity. His arms were in every case 
successful, and, with a propagandist zeal quite in keeping with the character of 
the man and the spirit of the times, the adoption of Christianity was made an 
essential condition in every treaty made with the vanquished. * For all these 
pious labours he received from Pope Sylvester II. a royal crown, and the title of 
"Apostolic King," which the emperors of Austria bear at the present day. 

His political reforms were scarcely less important than his religious ones. The 
influence of the Catholic clergy^ and daily contact with the neighbouring states, 
whose government was rather feudal than democratic, induced Stephen to substi- 
tute a constitutional monarchy for the rude and loosely organised military republic, 

* Bonfinius Her. Hung. Dec. ii. p. 21-5. 

E 2 



36 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

of which his ancestors had simply been the chieftains. He established three 
different orders in the state — prelates, magnates {seniores domini), and the inferior 
nobility {nobiles servientes regales). Each of these orders had an actual share 
in the administration of the government, but in the diets they could come to 
no decision unless they were unanimous.-^ The palatine {Nagy-ur) was, next 
the king, the most important personage, and filled the monarch's place during his 
absence ©r illness. Stephen afterwards appointed a supreme judge {orszdgliro), 
a treasurer, and other superior officers and magnates, who constituted the order 
of barons of the empire. Under this head ..were included the chiefs of the 
ancient Magyar class or tribe. It will be seen that the republican government 
was thus entirely destroyed. In the new order of things^ the church, as usual, 
came in for the lion's share of power and profit. The clergy, by working on the 
religious disposition of the king, managed to secure a high political position and 
the first rank in the three orders. Stephen, also, was the first to establish 
the districts called counties, Avhich exist down to the present day ; and each of 
these retained the right of administering its internal afiairs independent of all 
others. The members of the nobility generally occupied seats in the council, and 
the king himself was frequently present at the meetings. The counties were, in 
almost every respect, minor republics, and, besides, had the right of convoking 
periodically assemblies which exercised a direct infiuence upon the general 
administration of the central government. This whole arrangement has always 
been so highly prized by the Magyars, that tradition says that Stephen made 
it under the inspiration of the Deity. 

The military organisation differed in some respects front the civil, but was found 
to be extremely well adapted for the defence of the country. The military 
division consisted of sixty-two or seventy-two citadel counties, the commanders of 
Avhich resided in the fortresses — hence their title of Comites Casiri. For purposes 
of defence simply there was a sort of militia upon a scale suited to the habits 
and traditions of the people. The magnates formed the " king's army" {Kiruly 
Sereg), and the nobles in general — the national army at present called the iiisur- 
rectio7i, and it was obliged to be always in readiness to repel any attempt at foreign 
invasion. As a natural consequence of this, the possession of land in Hungary 
was even more intimately connected with the rights of the nobles than elsewhere. 
Two general principles regulated the privileges of the nobles, or, in other Avords, of 
the conquerors. First, that ever after Stephen's reign, the croAvn Avas the proprietor 
of all the land in the kingdom. In strict laAV, the nobles Avere only the possessors 
or occupiers of their estates ; Avhat we call the right of property being knoAvn 
amongst the Magyars as the right of possession {jus possessionaru7n). Secondly, 
all persons not noble could not possess land, and Avere, consequently, not called 

* This is the statement of the national historian Michael Horvath. Other writers assert 
that at this period there existed merely a senate with a consultative voice. 



DEATH AND CANONIZATION OF ST. STEPHEN. 



37 



upon to defend the kingdom. The entire soil was thus divided amongst the 
warriors, the companions of the first dukes or chieftains, just as in England 
after the Norman conquest. The original inhabitants met with the same 
fate as the Saxons, but, unhappily, the same good fortune was not in store 
for them. 

The usual condition attaching to a gift of land in Hungary was the ordinary 
feudal one of a military service. In every case the sovereign stipulated that in 




case of failure of heirs male of the grantee, who alone could fulfil the duties 
attaching to the tenure, the estate should revert to the grantor, or his heirs, or 
successors. 

Stephen wishing, a short time previous to his death, to appoint a successor to his 
kingdom in some way related to himself, now that his son Emerik was dead, sent 
hastily for Vazul, the son of his cousin, a young man who, for his licentiousness, 
lv,xd been shut up in prison, and ordered him to be liberated and brought to him 
forthwith. But upon Gysla, the queen, hearing of this, she entered into a 



38 HISTORY 01" HUNGARY. 

conspiracy with Buda, the messenger, to frustrate the king's intentions, in order 
that a favourite of her own might succeed to the throne. She, therefore, gave 
orders to Sebus, Buda's son, to precede his father to Vazul's prison, and there put 
out the eyes of the latter, and fill up his ears with molten lead. Sebus literally 
carried out his instructions, and then fled into Bohemia. On the following day 
Buda arrived and led the imfortunate Vazul, thus mutilated, into the presence of 
the old king, who, on seeing him, gave way to the loudest demonstrations of grief 
and indignation. But his advanced age, and increasing infirmities, had so far 
detracted from the vigour of his earlier years, that he was imable to take any steps 
either for the discovery or the punishment of the perpetrators of this foul crime, 
and after a feeble attempt to secure the safety of the sons of his cousin Ladislaus, 
by advising them to fly into Poland, he resigned himself to die, about the year 
1034, after a long and glorious reign of nearly forty years. 

The changes he had wrought in the religion, manners, and government of the 
kingdom, having Won a barbarous and cruel people from habits of rapine and 
violence, and having taught them to cultivate the arts of civilised life, and dwell in 
peace with their neighbours, would have been sufficient, in the infancy of the world, 
to procure his translation to Olympus, without the pain or humiliation of death, 
and would have caused ten thdlisand altars to smoke with incense for ages after- 
wards in honour of his memory. In the eleventh century they were quite sufficient 
to admit him to the goodly company of the saints and martyrs. For forty years 
his body lay unnoticed in the toinbj until, in the reign of Ladislaus, a missive was 
received from thi^ Pope, accorditig the honours of canonization to those who con- 
verted Hiihgary to Christianity. Chief atilong these was the deceased king. 
Upon the receipt of the authorisation, Ladislaiis ordained a fast of three days' 
duration, and directed all persons of every class to implore, by prayers and suppli- 
cation, the Divine blessing upon the ceremonial they were about to perform. A 
solemn procession marched to the tomb, but, on reaching it, it was found that no 
efibrts could remove the stone from the entrance. After several attempts had 
failed, the popular voice began to ascribe the difficulty to a miraculous manifesta- 
tion of Divine displeasure, and the king looked around in sore perplexity for 
the explanation of the mystery. A certain virgin named Charis came to the 
rescue, by informing Ladislaus that the reluctance of the stone to quit its position 
was due to his having imprisoned his brother Soloman a short time previously, 
in consequence of a quarrel ; and prophesied that until he had been released all 
efforts to remove it would prove futile. Her advice and rebuke were attended 
to : Soloman was released, the stone thrown aside, the body carried forth, and 
a volume would not suffice to enumerate all the blind who on that day received 
their sight, all the deaf who heard, the lame who walked, the lepers who were 
cleansed, and all the doubting who were confirmed, or blasphemers Avho were 
confounded. So runs the chronicle or tradition. 

Peter, the grandnephew of Stephen, having obtained the crown through the 



DETHRONEMENT OF PETEK. 39 

machinations of Gysla, the okl king's wife, had no sooner ascended the throne 
than he disgusted all parties by his tyranny. Not only did he refuse to tread in 
the footsteps of his uncle, Avhom the Magyars loved to call the Charlemagne and 
Clovis of Hungary, hut he did not even fill the kingly office with ordinary show 
of outward dignity and decorum. From the very first he insulted and professed 
to despise the nobility; evinced marked partiality for the Germans and other 
foreigners, invited them to his court, and acted in everything in accordance Avith 
their advice. German garrisons, contrary to the express laws of the kingdom, 
were placed in the towns and fortresses, and Germans were appointed to fill some 
of the highest offices in the state. The courtiers affected to contemn the natives of 
the country as untutored barbarians, and were encouraged in their insolence by Peter 
himself. In addition to this, he outraged the feelings of the people by an open 
licentiousness foreign to the national manners, and hitherto unknown in Hungary. 
The wives and daughters of some of the first families in the kingdom were sub- 
jected to the most cruel insults from himself and his satellites. 

The magnates at last sent a deputation to lay before him in detail the various 
grievances of which they complained, and to imj)lore him to restore the high offices 
of the state to men of his own nation, to drive the foreign favourites from his 
court, and last of all to reform his own manners. Their prayers were listened to 
in contemptuous silence, and rejected with insult. Peter declared that not only 
would he not exj)el the Germans, but that he would load them, with still greater 
honours ; that these complaints were dictated by the native turbulence of the 
Magyars, and that he would show them right speedily that he was sole ruler in 
his own dominions. 

The result was such as might have been expected. The deputation retired in 
indignation, and the nobles instantly met in council, and solemnly entered into a 
league to dethrone the tyrant, and fixed upon Aba, a man of royal blood, as his 
successor. Aba was forthwith led before a public assemblage of the armed 
warriors of the nation, and by them unanimously saluted king with loud acclama- 
tions, and instant preparations were made to march against Peter. When the 
latter heard of what had occurred he was seized with consternation, and finding 
himself deserted by all those who in the days of his prosperity had been loudest 
in their protestations of fidelity, he fled precipitately into Bavaria. 

Aba then called together a grand council of the nobles, explained the cause of 
the rebellion, defended the part he had himself taken in it, and after enumerating 
Peter's crimes and outrages, solemnly declared his intention of restoring and 
upholding the anfcient order of things, and of governing in accordance Avith the 
laws and constitution of the kingdom as established by Stephen of blessed memory. 
All the illegal decrees of the late king were forthwith revoked, the civil and 
military officials who had been dismissed to make way for the foreigners were 
restored, and all Germans expelled from the country. Aba had scarce reigned for 
three years, when (1042) Peter suddenly jDrepared to invade the kingdom at 



40 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

the head of a large German army; sent to his aid by the emperor, Henry III., 
who himself accompanied the expedition. Ambassadors were forthwith despatched 
to learn from Henry the cause of this sudden attack. The reply which that 
monarch gave proves that even at that early period, and amongst a people whose 
history and manners were a standing protest against irresponsible power, the 
doctrine of divine right, in these latter days productive of so much evil to 
mankind, was beginning to gain ground. He declared that he could never lightly 
pass over injuries done to his friends, and in particular the outrage upon Peter, 
as kings should, from the very nature of their office, be held sacred amongst all 
nations. Aba replied, that amongst them, the persons of their kings were held 
sacred, but to tyrants they could never submit. Henry was, however, inex- 
orable, and Aba resolved to anticipate him by suddenly raising an army, and, 
entering Austria and Bavaria, laid waste the country on both banks of the Danube, 
and slaughtered the inhabitants, and re-entered Hungary with a vast amount of 
plunder and a great number of captives. Henry was celebrating the feast of Easter 
when he heard of the occurrence, and instantly enumerated, in a full assemblage 
of the German princes, all the atrocities that had been committed by the Magyars, 
and announced his intention of marching instantly to inflict summary vengeance 
upon the perpetrators. Scarcely had he finished, when ambassadors from Hungary 
presented themselves, who, on learning the intention of the Germans, declared that 
Aba was quite ready to return the captives and the booty, but as to the restora- 
tion of Peter, it was a thing not to be thought of, and which they would rather die 
than submit to. But Henry had already pledged himself to Albert, Duke of 
Austria, whose sister Peter had married, that the restoration of the exiled king 
should be accomplished at all hazards, and therefore dismissed the ambassadors 
without any answer. Internal troubles in his own dominions, hoAvever, caused 
the postponement of the intended expedition, and Aba, in the meantime, endea- 
voured to amuse him by fair words and fine promises which he neither intended 
nor had the ability to fulfil. 

In the interval dissensions and discontents arose in the kingdom, the exact 
origin of which we have now no means of ascertaining. By his attempt to improve 
the condition of the peasants, or serfs. Aba appears to have excited the hostility 
of the nobles, but what measures he adopted for that purpose, or in what manner 
he attempted to carry them out, we know not. The descendants of the ancient 
Dacians, and the debris of all the tribes who from time to time had settled in 
Pannonia in the earlier centuries of Christianity, and been obliged to submit 
to more powerful invaders, had, as we have already said, under the Magyar domi- 
nation sunk into the abject condition of tillers of the soil for their conquerors' , 
benefit, and came at last to be numbered amongst the chattels on the farm. The 
condition of these people, as in all other countries of Europe where a conquest 
had taken place, was deplorable. They were not allowed to change their place 
of residence, except by consent of their owners ; were incapable of acquiring 



DEATH OF ABA. 41 

property; and were daily subject to all the outrages which unbridled power in a 
rude and barbarous age could inflict. 

It is more than probable that Aba was a man of philosophic mind, and 
humane disposition, that he pitied these unfortunate men, and risked his crown 
in the attempt to liberate or elevate them ; but as all the accounts of his quarrel 
with the nobles and its consequences which have come down to us are not only 
meagre in the extreme, but are from the pen of chroniclers whose prejudices 
were in favour of the conquering party, they must be received with great sus- 
picion. 

His attempts at innovation and intrenchment on their rights and privileges 
excited the ire of the nobility to such a degree, that they considered the off"ences of 
Peter small in comparison,*' and forthwith began to conspire to bring about his 
restoration. The plot was discovered before it was ripe : some of the conspirators 
were arrested, tried, and put to death ; some fled to Henry's camp ; and others, 
being induced to appear at court for the purpose of discussing their grievances 
openly with the king, were secretly despatched by his guards. The fugitives 
implored the German emperor to rid the kingdom of this cruel monster, who 
would never fulfll his engagements, who had insulted the nobility, and degraded 
the kingly office by frequent and familiar intercourse with serfs and ploughmen, 
and whose crimes called loudly for vengeance. Henry listened to their supplica- 
tions with a willing ear, and began his march, under the guidance of the refugees, 
and coming up with the Hungarian army, instantly offered battle. The contest 
was long and bloody ; but while the issue was still doubtful, the defection of a large 
body of his forces threw Aba's army into confusion, and led to his total defeat. 
The Germans ascribed their victory pai-tly, of course, to their own valour, and 
partly to the timely appearance of a sign in the heavens, upon which a great wind 
arose, and blew into the faces of their antagonists a thick cloud of dust which 
blinded and disheartened them. Whatever we may think of the miracle, there is no 
doubt about the result of the engagement. Aba fled precipitately across the 
Danube, until, on arriving at a village on the Teyss, he was slain by some of his 
own followers, and buried in a neighbouring church (1044). 

Peter was now restored to the throne which he had lost by his folly, but he 
appeared to have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing in adversity. He again 
surrounded himself by foreigners, repaid the services of the nobles who had joined 
Henry's army by insult and neglect, and soon convinced them that the exchange 
they had made Avas by no means for the better. A spirit of discontent spread through 
the whole nation, and when the three princes, Andrew, Bela, and Leventa, whom 
Stephen had sent into Poland for safety after the mutilation of Vazul, appeared once 

* " Usque adeo iiisolens efFectus est, ut competitore perniciosior esse videretiu', quippe qui et 
fovere humiles agrestesque, et in nobiles immaniter saevire, coeperat." — Bonfin. Dec. ii. 
lib. ii. p. 219. 



42 HISTORY OF HUNGAKY. 

more on the scene, their advent Avas hailed with acchamation. They had been 
received by Misco, the king of Poland, Avith great kindness and cordiality, and one 
of them, Bela, had distinguished himself during his stay in his dominions by an act 
of romantic valour, which in that age poAverfully impressed the imaginations of the 
people. A dispute had arisen betAveen the Poles and the Pomeranians as to the 
payment of tribute, Avhich the former claimed from the latter. The contending 
parties Avere about to decide it by an appeal to arms, Avhen it Avas proposed that, 
instead of a general engagement of the tAvo armies, a champion should be chosen 
on each side, to Avhose strength and valour should be confided the assertion of the 
rights of his countrymen. If the Pole proved victorious, the Pomeranians should 
pay the tribute ; if not, not. Bela came forward, and A'olunteered his services as the 
champion of Poland. They Avere accejited, and in the first onset he unhorsed his 
antagonist, and then despatched him Avith a single bloAv of his sword ; for Avhich 
exploit Misco loaded him Avith favours, bestoAved on him large estates in Pome- 
rania, and gave him his daughter Gysla in marriage, by Avhom he had two sons, 
Geysa and Ladislaus. The other tAvo brothers, Andrew and Leventa, after 
various Avanderings amongst the Cumans and the Eussians, returned at last to 
Hungary, upon hearing of the feeling of discontent which pervaded the minds of 
the people. Here they were presented to large assemblages of the Magyars, Avho 
unanimously saluted them kings, and called loudly for the destruction of all 
foreigners and priests, the overthroAV of the Christian religion and the churches 
built for its Avorship, and the restoration of the ancient Scythian rites — a striking 
proof of the superficial nature of the conversions effected at that period amongst 
the barbarians of northern Europe. Putting themselves at the head of the 
multitude, the two princes marched rapidly toAvards Buda, the chief city of the 
kingdom. Some priests, and most of the bishops, Avere slaughtered on the Avay. 
Peter attempted once more to find safety in flight, but found himself encom- 
passed on every side by enemies, and Avas at last captured in the village of 
Zamur ; and his eyes having been put out, he died of grief and vexation three days 
afterwards, in the third year from his restoration to the throne. 

The foreigners having been everyAvhere expelled, AndreAV and Leventa marched 
to Alba E-egia, the royal residence, Avhere the former Avas solemnly croAvned king, 
with the consent and approbation of the magnates, but only three bishops could 
be found to assist at the coronation, the others having been slain or haAdng taken 
flight (1047). 

AndreAV had no sooner ascended the throne, than he issued an ordinance, com- 
manding all Hungarians, upon pain of death, to abandon all pagan rites and 
ceremonies, and return to the Avorship of the true God, and of his son Jesus 
Christ ; and ordering all toAvns and villages in Avhich any church or chapel had 
been destroyed, to repair or rebuild it forthAAdth. As far as we can learn, 
these injunctions Avere obeyed Avithout a murmur, the more readily, as Leventa, 
who Avas a firm adherent of the pagan faith, died a feAv days after his brother's 



WAR WITH THE EMPEROR OF GERMANY. 43 

coronation. It seems as if the people disliked Christianity simply because, 
diu-ing Peter's reign, it had come to be associated in their minds with foreign 
influence and domination, and they returned to paganism because it was the 
religion of nationality. Our own history contains a similar instance of the 
antipathy of a people to a creed, because it was the creed of alien oppressors. 
If England had not been Protestant, in all likelihood Ireland would not now hme 
bsfjft- Catholic. 

Andrew's attention for the next few years was occupied with the settlement of 
differences, either by the sword or negotiation, with the surrounding nations. To 
enter into the details of these squabbles Avould be tedious and uninteresting, even 
if it were instructive. Amongst the semi-civilised people of northern Europe, at 
that time, they were perpetually arising, and exhibit the same monotonous features 
of treachery, violence, and rapine, redeemed by no better trait than physical 
courage. 

When Andrew found himself childless, and in the decline of life, he sent a 
message to Bela, his brother, who, as we have said, was settled in Poland, 
requesting him to come into Hungary with his wife and children, that he might 
assist in calming the contentions and disorders by which the nation was agitated, 
and that they might divide the kingdom between them (1051). Bela, immediately 
upon the receipt of this, laid aside the dukedom Avith which Misco had invested 
him, and started for his brother's dominions. He was received with the utmost 
joy, not only by Andrew, but by the whole population ; and an assembly having 
been held, the kingdom was divided into three parts, two-thirds being reserved for 
the king, and the remainder being assigned to Bela. The two monarchs ruled 
over their respective dominions for some years in perfect harmony, but the calm 
was rudely broken by another vigorous attack from Henry III., of Germany, who 
had collected a large force Avith the avowed intention of avenging the injuries 
sustained by Peter, and the perfidy and inconstancy of the Hungarians. He 
entered Hungary at the head of a powerful army, and laid vigorous siege to 
Presburg, a town on the Danube. He launched floating toAvers upon the riA'er, 
and attacked the Avails by the aid of every machine in use at that period, at the 
same time maintaining a strict blockade on every side, so as to starve the garrison 
into submission. Upon the latter the attack had come unexpectedly, and being 
totally unprepared for a lengthened defence, they Avere obliged to resort to 
stratagem to open up the passage of the river. A skilful SAvimmer, named Zoth- 
mund, dropped silently from the walls into the Avater in the dead of the night, and 
swimming round the enemy's vessels, bored holes in their sides beloAv the Avater- 
mark, and before morning the majority were sunk, in spite of all the efforts of the 
crews ; and the emperor Avas compelled to raise the siege in haste. The ncAVS 
having animated the courage of the Hungarians, the Germans Avere attacked upon 
every side, and compelled to retreat precipitately into their oAvn country. 

In the folloAving year, Henry, chagrined by his failure, fitted out another 



44 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

expedition, and again invaded Hungary. Andrew and Bela hastily collected their 
forces, laid waste the frontier districts, so as to deprive the enemy of all supplies 
on his march, and then awaited the issue. The Germans, after enduring terrible 
sufferings, were impatiently expecting their fleet by the Danube, when a letter 
from the admiral to the emperor having fallen into Andrew's hands, a forged 
answer was returned, commanding him to sink his vessels and join the army at 
Ratisbon, as the expedition was abandoned. The order was obeyed, and Henry 
was still in uncertainty, v/hen his camp was suddenly attacked in the night by a 
large force of Hungarian archers and slingers, who, in the darkness and confusion, 
slaughtered a vast number of the Germans. He was now fain to solicit peace. 
Some years previous to this, Andrew, haunted by the fear of dying childless, had 
m;-a-ried Agmunda, the daughter of the Duke of the Muscovites, and by her had 
two sons, Soloman and David. To the elder of these, Soloman, the emperor offered 
to betroth his daughter Sophia, as a pledge of the peace and amity which he 
wished henceforth to maintain with the king of Hungary. His offers were 
accepted ; a treaty was made, provisions were sent in abundance to the German 
camp, and a short time afterwards the nuptial rites were celebrated with 
great pomp. The former had not yet emerged from boyhood, and was thus 
but too soon made acquainted with the cares and anxieties of the world. 
Andrew was now seized with paralysis, and believing his end to be approaching, 
declared Soloman his heir, before an assembly of the prelates and magnates, by 
whom he was solemnly crowned. At the ceremony, according to custom, the 
Avords of Isaac to Jacob were chanted or recited : " Let the people serve thee, 
and nations bow down to thee. Be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's 
sons bow down to thee ; " * and although this was interpreted to Bela as 
signifying Andrew's intention that he and his tAvo sons, Geysa and Ladislaus, 
should be subject to the sway of Soloman, it does not appear that he made an 
objection to the claims of the young prince to what Avas certainly his laAvful 
inheritance. 

But in a very short time some of the nobles, Avho bore no good Avill to Bela, 
made it appear to AndreAv, that as long as his brother lived, his son Avould never 
enjoy the kingdom in peace, and they advised him to employ stratagem to learn 
Bela's intentions. The latter Avas accordingly invited to court, and AndreAv 
received him reclining on a couch in the open air, haAdng a SAvord and a croAvn 
placed on the ground at his side. The former symbolized the dukedom, the latter 
the kingdom. Bela Avas to be offered his choice of the tAvo as a present ; if he chose 
the croAvn, it Avas to be taken as a proof that his intentions were sinister, and he Avas 
to be slain on the spot, if he chose the SAVord, that he was content Avith his position, 
and Avould never attempt aught against his nephcAv's supremacy. The plot Avas 
revealed to Bela by the treachery of a servant, and he prudently chose the SAVord. 

* Gen. xxvii. 29, 



BELa's REFORJNIS. 45- 

Transported with delight, the old king sent him away laden with presents, and being 
convinced of the sincerity of his attachment, solemnly committed the interests of his 
son to his keeping. But Bela was so alarmed by the dangerous position in which 
his brother's suspicions had placed him, that in three months afterwards 
he fled with all his family to the court of Misco, his father-in-law, told him of 
all the injuries and insults he had received from Andrew, and besought him 
to aid him in taking possession of the Hungarian crown, supporting his 
prayer by drawing a glowing picture of the advantages that would result 
from the close alliance of the two kingdoms. Misco complied with his request, 
and placed a strong force at his disposal, with which he invaded his brother's 
dominions. 

Andrew, on his side, was not idle ; he sent an embassy to Henry representing 
the dangers of his situation, and asking for an auxiliary force. The emperor 
instantly sent him 12,000 men, and a similar contingent was furnished by Bratis- 
laus, King of Bohemia. The two armies met on the banks of the Teyss ; the 
German troops crossed the river, and fiercely attacked the combined Polish and 
Hungarian forces of Bela. The battle which ensued was long and bloody, and 
ended in the total defeat of Andrew, who was taken prisoner, and died on the 
following day, leaving Bela in imdisturbed possession of the kingdom (1062). 
Bela, immediately after his coronation, turned his whole attention to internal 
reforms. He established a regular system of coinage, appointed places and times 
for the holding of markets, and even took upon himself to fix the prices of com- 
modities, and admitted the use of Byzantine coins. He secured to all Soloman's 
family and relatives the full and undisturbed enjoyment of their property. The 
exercise of pagan worship throughout the whole of his dominions was strictly 
forbidden upon pain of death. To him also belongs the honour of organising the 
tAvo legislative chambers. His energy, impartiality, and pure administration of 
justice, tended greatly to the development of the national resources, and it was 
not without imfeigned sorrow that his subjects received the news of his death, 
which was caused by the falling of a ruined wall, which broke his limbs in such a 
manner as to baiSe the skill of the physicians of the time (1065). Soloman, 
Andrew's son, immediately called upon Henry IV. of Germany, the son and 
successor of the late emperor, to restore him to his father's throne, and by his aid, 
Geysa and Ladislaus were compelled to fly into Poland, and Soloman was put in 
undisturbed possession of the kingdom. In a short time the two brothers again 
made their appearance upon the frontier with a Polish army, and there appeared 
every probability of another civil war. By the mediation of the clergy, however, 
a reconciliation was eff'ected, by which the kingdom was ceded to Soloman, and 
to Geysa was reserved his father's dukedom. 

This was a period of new conquests. Between the years 602 and 641 great 
hordes of Serbs and Croats, quitting the countries in which they dwelt beyond 
the Carpathian mountains, settled in the northern part of the Greek Illyria, that is 



46 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

to say, in the south of modern Hungary. Those who took up their abode in the 
extremity of the district adopted the name of the town of Delminium, in order to 
distinguish themselves from the others, and called themselves Dalmatians ; the 
Croats, at present established in the countries to the south-west of Hungary, pre- 
served their original appellation, as did also the Serbs, who retired further towards 
the east. The name of Sclaves (Schiavoni) was given by the Venetians to a 
tribe dwelling between the Croats and the Serbs. Crecimir, the first Croat prince, 
attained to a very high degree of power, which was the means of securing to his 
son, Dirsizlaw, the title of King of Croatia, about the year 970. In the time of 
Soloman, Peter Crecimir, a descendant of the great Crecimir, an able and 
courageous monarch, occupied the throne, and enlarged his dominions by wrest- 
ing Dalmatia from the Venetians, and subduing a part of Sclavonia. Having 
been attacked by Berthold, the Duke of Carinthia, Crecimir invoked the aid of 
the Magyars, which Soloman cheerfully rendered; by his help, Berthold was 
totally defeated (1089). 

Soloman and his two cousins did not long continue to exhibit an example of 
fraternal unity and concord. Urged on by evil counsellors, Soloman began to long 
for the expulsion and destruction of his rivals ; and after laying a variety of snares 
for them, all of which they escaped, he at last openly took up arms against them. 
After several battles, he was at length totally defeated, and was driven out of the 
kingdom. In his reign the incursions of the Cumans and Bohemians had been 
checked by a long series of wars, into the details of which it would be impos- 
sible to enter. 

When Geysa and Ladislaus found themselves victorious, they marched forthwith 
to Alba Regia, the state residence of the Hungarian kings, where the former, as the 
elder brother, was formally crowned and proclaimed king, with the approbation of 
the majority of the nobles, and Ladislaus was by him appointed duke or palatine 
of the kingdom. 

Soloman immediately sought the aid of his brother-in-law, Henry IV. of Ger- 
many, Avho led a large army, well provided with stores of every description, into 
Hungary, while a well-equipped fleet followed his march down the Danube. The 
two brothers were not slow in making defensive preparations, and marched reso- 
lutely to meet the invaders. While besieging the town of Nitria, the garrison 
made a sally, and engaged hand to hand with the Germans ; but the conflict was 
like some of the battles between the rival states in Italy in the fourteenth and 
fifteenth centuries, in which, after the combat had lasted from early morn until eve, 
none were slain and but fcAV hurt. One of the Hungarian officers. Opus Bathor, 
being at last disgusted with what he considered child's play, rode straight into the 
ranks of the enemy and killed a man before the eyes of the citizens. His horse 
immediately fell, pierced by a hundred javelins, but Bathor, nothing daunted, 
valiantly maintained his ground on foot, and fought his way out uninjured. The 
German emperor beheld the feat with astonishment, and asked Soloman how many 



ELECTION OF LADISLAUS. 47 

soldiers of equal strength Ladislans and Geysa had hi their army. Soloman, more 
considerate of the fame of his country than of his own success, replied that the 
Hungarian forces contained not only many that were equal, but thousands that 
were superior. "Then believe me," was Henry's rejoinder, "you will never 
recover your kingdom." 

It was not the intention of Geysa, however, to decide the quarrel by force of 
arms, as long as other means remained open to him ; and he diligently set about 
bribing the German nobles and military leaders to dissuade Henry from following 
up his enterprise, and by the same instrumentality a serious mutiny was excited 
amongst the soldiery. The emperor was persuaded that he was unAvisely risking 
the safety of his own army in a quarrel in which he had no sort of interest ; and, 
overcome by his fears, he struck his camp, and returned precipitately into his 
dominions. Soloman, in the meantime, took refuge in Presburg, and, by means of 
the intrigues which he carried on, gave great imeasiness to the two princes. They 
then commenced negotiations with him for jDeace and reconciliation, in the midst 
qf which Geysa died, after a reign of three years. 

After the funeral ceremony was over, the question of a successor began to be 
agitated. Legitimacy was undoubtedly upon the side of Soloman, but the people 
found it impossible to forget the splendid services which Ladislaus had rendered 
to the state, and his piety, wisdom, fortitude, and prudence ; and he was, in 
consequence, unanimously elected by the prelates, magnates, and nobles. Shortly 
after he had ascended the throne, Zelomir, the king of Croatia and Dalmatia, his 
sister's husband, died childless, leaving his kingdom to his wife.. The widow was 
soon attacked by her enemies abroad, and assailed by sedition at home, and in her 
perplexity appealed to her brother for protection and assistance. He immediately 
marched with a powerful army to her aid, and soon restored peace ; but as she had 
no children, and was wearied by the cares of state, she resigned her dominions to 
Ladislaus, and Croatia and Dalmatia were henceforth subject to the Hungarian 
crown. 

Soloman, in the meantime, did not desist from his intrigues for the recovery of 
his fatlier's kingdom ; but a treaty was at length concluded by which he aban- 
doned his claims, and consented to retire into Germany, upon condition that he 
received a yearly stipend suihcient to support him in j^rincely style. He soon 
became tired of his forced exile, and sent to request an interview with Ladislaus, 
for the purpose, as he pretended, of more cordially confirming their reconciliation, 
but in reality in order to seize him and carry him off. Ladislaus received timely 
wa,rning of the snare, and placed a powerful body of troops in ambush in the 
vicinity of the place of meeting. Everything turned out as he expected. The 
attendants of Soloman arrested him, but, as they were marching away, the captors 
were surrounded and led captive, and Ladislaus released. Soloman, chagrined 
and humiliated by the want of success attendant upon his treachery, was led 
prisoner to Yisegrad, and there kept. In a very short time he managed to 



48 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

enter into a conspiracy with a tribe called the Chuni, and induced them to 
attack Hungary ; but on hearing of their utter defeat by Ladislaus, fearing that 
proofs of his complicity might have been discovered, he effected his escape, and 
sought refuge amongst his discomfited allies, whom he once more stirred up to 
invade Bulgaria, where they laid waste the country and slaughtered many of the 
inhabitants. Nicephorus, the Greek emperor, forthwith led an army against them, 
and routed them with great slaughter. Soloman, with a few hundreds of his 
followers, rode off the field towards the Ister, On the way they stopped in a 
small deserted town, where, to their surprise, they suddenly found themselves 
surrounded by a body of Greek troops, who closely invested the place, and seemed 
determined to starve them into subjection. The unfortunate Soloman, with a 
courage worthy of a better reward, resolved to die in a manner becoming his 
descent, and, calling around him the most devoted of his adherents, boldly charged 
the besiegers, and, to his own surprise, succeeded in cutting his way through them 
unhurt, and, pursuing his course with such of his companions as had survived the 
fray, found the Ister frozen over, and crossed it in safety. Upon reaching the 
other side they took refuge in a wood, in order to rest themselves and their horses. 
Soloman, after giving them a few directions, laid aside his arms, and, disappearing 
through the trees, was never afterwards seen. It was long believed that, wearied 
of the strife and turmoil of the world, and despairing of recovering his inheritance, 
he had taken up his abode in some remote fastness, and was expiating by a life of 
prayer and penitence the crimes and follies of his early years. 

Not very long after his disappearance from the scene, the Chuni once more, 
taking advantage of the absence of Ladislaus in his newly acquired dominion of 
Croatia and Sclavonia, entered Hungary, laid waste the country with fire and 
sword, and carried»great multitudes away captive. Ladislaus, upon hearing of 
the outrage, returned by forced marches, and coming up with the enemy on the 
banks of the Temes, roused the fury of his soldiers by pointing out the 
probability that their own wives and children were amongst the number of the 
captives whom they saw winding down the side of the hill in a long line, and 
falling upon the barbarians, who, laden with booty and intoxicated with success, 
were incapable of making an effectual resistance, he committed so great havoc 
among them, that in all probability but few of the tribe would have survived to 
tell of their defeat, had not the king stayed the impetuosity of the Hungarians, by 
reminding them that the conversion of these pagans to Christianity would cover 
a multitude of sins. 

The Chuni, upon hearing of the loss of their bravest warriors, and of their chief 
Kopulk, who had been slain in the combat, ordered a general mourning through- 
out their^:^territory, and seeking the alliance of the various tribes in their 
neighbourhood, prepared once more to march against Hungary, to avenge then- 
defeat and recover the captives. Previous to setting out, however, they 
sent ambassadors to Ladislaus to demand satisfaction, with an air of insolent 



DEATH OF LADISLATJS. 49 

haughtiness that would have comported the victor much better than the 
vanquished. He sternly refused to comply with their requests, and anticipating 
their attack, advanced to the frontier to meet them, and fell in with them once 
more upon the banks of the Ister, upon a Sunday morning. He rode forward in 
front of his forces and challenged the bravest of the enemy to single combat. All 
remained silent. He then loudly called their leader by name, who could not, 
when thus addressed, decline the contest. He came forth, but in a few minutes, 
Ladislaus ran him through the body and killed him on the spot. Upon seeing 
their general fall the Chuni fled, and thus ended the last attack they ever made 
upon Hungary, Invasions made by the Russians and Poles were repulsed with 
equal vigour, and it is said that for the purpose of chastising the latter he pushed 
his victorious arms to the very walls of Cracow, which surrendered to him after a 
vigorous resistance, but that after receiving an humble submission from the 
inhabitants, he, with rare moderation, restored them their city without condition 
and without injury. He then turned his arms against the Bohemians, and 
soon made that turbulent people sensible that they co^ild not oiFend him 
with impunity. 

With peace abroad and tranquillity at home, he had now an opportunity of 
gratifying his inclination and soothing his conscience by the performance of works 
of piety and devotion. Churches and chapels, dedicated to the Virgin and various 
saints arose at his command in all parts of the kingdom, as tokens of gratitude 
for the uniform good fortune that had attended all his enterprises, for the victories 
which had shed lustre on his name, and for the care which had covered his head 
in the day of battle, and sheltered him from the snares of his enemies. There 
was still, however, one duty which he longed to fulfil, ere he rested from his 
labours, — to aid in rescuing the Holy Land from the infidels. Peter the Hermit 
was at this time horrifying all Europe by his account of the terrible indignities 
which the Christians who sought to worship at the tomb of Christ were receiving 
at the hands of the infidels. Ambassadors were sent to Ladislaus from the 
Crusaders, solemnly invoking his aid in their enterprise, for the defence of the 
religion of which he had all his life shown himself so devout a professor. He 
listened to their tale with tears and lamentations, and dismissed them Avith the 
promise that during that very year he would set out for Palestine with as large 
a force as he could collect. He therefore apprized his nephew, the king of Bohe- 
mia, of his intention, and desired him to prepare to join him with all the troops 
at his command. Conrad had no sooner commenced to carry out his instructions, 
than he was obliged to defend his cr9Wn against a competitor of his own blood, 
who seized Prague in the night, and with the consent of the archbishop, pro- 
claimed himself king. Ladislaus instantly marched to his assistance, but on the 
way, sickened and died, bequeathing his kingdom to his nephew Almos. He 
was buried in the church of Varadin (1095), which he himself had founded, 
with extraordinary pomp and solemnity, and so great was his reputation for 

F 



50 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

sanctity of life, that for a long period miracles were believed by the common 
people to have been performed at his tomb, as at the tomb of a saint. 

Almos did not retain the crown more than a few days. His elder brother, 
Coloman, whom Ladislaus had compelled to enter the church, but who had fled 
into Poland to avoid performing the duties of his office, returned to claim his 
birthright, and it was surrendered to him without a murmur. 

Up to this period Hungary had been almost isolated from the rest of Eiirope. 
She was the youngest of the nations which had risen upon the ruins of the Roman 
Empire, and the difference of languiage and manners, and the reminiscences which 
the more civilised states of the south and west retained of the ferocity of the 
inhabitants, combined to cut off" all communication between them and the Magyars. 
The Crusades were now about to break down this barrier, and, by the diffusion of 
geographical information, to place her among the great family of Christian nations. 



CHAPTER Y. 



DYKASTY OF AKPAD CONTINUED. 



A.D. 1095—1301. 



It was in the reign of Coloman tliat the army of the Crusaders first appeared 
upon the frontiers of Hungary. The preachings of Peter the Hermit, and 
of the Pope, had done their work, and througliout the whole of Europe, an 
eager desire pervaded all classes of men to march against the Saracens, for 
the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre. The serfs hoped by these means to escape 
from bondage ; the debtor to avoid the claims of his creditor ; the supersti- 
tious and fanatical (and who was not ?) to atone for a multitude of sins ; the 
warrior to crown himself with military glory in a conflict which religion sanctified; 
and the licentious luxuriated in the marvellous stories which pilgrims had told of 
the passing splendour of Saracen palaces, the gold, and silver, and silk brocade 
which adorned them, the flavour of the Greek Avines, and the beauty of the eastern 
Avomen. None was to fear danger, for the might of the foe would be feeble before 
him who fought for the Lord; none was to fear want, for he who Avon the Lord 
was abundantly rich ; no one Avas to be kept at home by the tears of those he 
Was leaving behind, for the grace of the Lord Avould abundantly protect them. 
During the Avhole Avinter of 1095-6, Europe resounded Avith the bustle of prepara- 
tion. The demand for horses, arms, and accoutrements Avas so great, that the 
prices of these articles rose enormously, Avhile so numerous Avere the sales of 
houses, lands, and goods, that their A'alue Avas depreciated in an equal degree. 
Those Avho Avere prevented from joining the expedition by age, or infirmity, or any 
other cause, contributed money toAvards paying the expenses. The 15th of August, 
1096, had been fixed by the Council of Clermont as the day on Avhich the army 
should commence its march ; but so great Avas the enthusiasm, that Avhen spring 
arrived, the great bulk of the loAver orders cotild be restrained no longer, but 
prepared to set out forthwith. 

" The husbandman," says the old chronicle, " let the plough stand, the herds- 
man the cattle, the wife ran Avith the cradle, the monk out of the cloister, the nuns 
too Avere among the rest." The people abandoned their toAvns and villages, and 
encamped in tents and booths, aAvaitlng the signal to march. And in these 
assemblies, Adce, disorder and profligacy Avere mingled with piety and sanctity 
and military ardour in strange confusion. The runaAvay debtor Avas seen side-by- 
side Avith the armed gentleman, Avho had fought in fifty tournays ; the chaste and 
devout virgin, Avith the unholy prostitute, but both in male attire, 

F 2 



52 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

In the month of May, thousands assembled in the province of Lorraine of those 
who had assumed the cross, for the most part rabble, whom the princes had 
rejected, or those whose impatient zeal could abide no longer delay. So great was 
their ignorance, that when they got out of the immediate neighbourhood in which 
they lived, every castle or town they saw, they cried, " Is that Jerusalem ?" Eight 
knights only appeared amongst them, one of whom, Walter the Penniless, led 
fifteen thousand footmen from France, At Cologne he and his followers 
abandoned the Hermit and pushed on for Hungary. Neither Coloman nor his 
subjects had ever shown any great enthusiasm for the holy war, but nevertheless, 
when Walter and his horde presented themselves on the frontier, and craved a 
free passage and market, their requests were readily granted, and they passed on 
unmolested until they reached Bulgaria, a province at that time in subjection to the 
Greek emperor. Their misery and distress increasing at every mile of the journey 
their turbulence and licentiousness increased at the same time, and the governor 
of Belgrade, having refused to furnish them Avith a provision market, they spread 
themselves over the surrounding country, burnt the houses, carried off the sheep 
and cattle, and slaughtered such of the inhabitants as offered any resistance. The 
Bulgarian peasantry instantly rose in arms on every side, * and falling upon 
Walter's soldiery in the midst of their revelry, and when laden with booty, slew 
great numbers of them. Sixty Crusaders perished in the midst of the flames in 
a church in which they had sought an asylum, and the others found safety only in 
flight. Walter made his escape with a chosen few, and pursued his march 
through trackless forests, suffering incredible hardships, till he arrived at Nissa, 
the governor of which afforded him and his followers food and clothing, and 
guides to lead them on to Constantinople, where quarters were given them outside 
the walls, to await the arrival of Peter the Hermit, f 

The latter, having traversed Bavaria and Austria, arrived in safety at the gates 
of a city called Sempronia by the Romans, and Soprony by the Hungarians, and, 
at the present day, Oedenburg. From this he sent ambassadors to Coloman, to ask 
a free passage through his dominions, which was granted him upon condition that 
the Crusaders kept to the road, and paid for their provisions. Peter then led his 
forces towards the western point of the great lake Balaton, descended into the 
valley of the Drave, and then, marching along the banks of the Danube, arrived 
without obstacle at Semlin, to which the pilgrims gave the name of Mala Villa, on 
account of the misfortunes which there befel them. 

Coloman appears to have taken some very natural precautions against the 
excesses of the Crusaders, which Peter, instead of endeavouring to preserve 
discipline, magnified into a plot against him and against his followers. The report 
got abroad that the Hungarians had determined to attack them upon one side of 
the river, and the Bulgarians upon the other, and while in a state of alarm, their 

* Keightley's " Crusaders," vol. i. p. 41. 
t Michaud's ' ' Histoire des Croisades," torn. i. p. 100, 



THE FIRST CRUSADE. 



53 



fears were confirmed and their anger roused by the sight of the arms and clothes 
of sixteen Crusaders, whom they supposed to have been murdered, — suspended 
outside the walls of Semlin. The trumpets were instantly sounded, the pilgrims 
seized their arms and flew to the assault ; the garrison, taken by surprise, 
abandoned their post and fled, and the inhabitants, having quitted the town and 
taken refuge upon a height, defended upon one side by rocks and woods, and on 
the other by the Danube, were pursued to their retreat, and more than 4,000 



1 1 m 

\' § /' J / 1 



\m\\ 




COLOMAN. 



barbarously slaughtered, and the dead bodies, floating down the river, brought the 
first news of the massacre to Belgrade. 

The victors remained in the town for five days, feasting on the provisions and 
plundering the houses. At last a monk, settled in Hungary, brought them the 
alarming tidings that Coloman was approaching, with an army of 100,000 
men, to avenge the slaughter of his subjects. The Crusaders, who fought under 
the influence of blind fury, were totally wanting in real courage, and their leader 
possessed a far greater amount of enthusiasm than of military skill. They, 



54 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

therefore, immediately collected boats, formed rafts of timber, and reached the 
other side of the lake, not, hoAvever, -without loss, as the Bulgarians, moving about 
in light canoes, shot many of them with their arrows. After suffering great misery 
and loss, they at last reached Constantinople, where Alexis, the Greek emperor, 
strongly advised them to await the approach of the arrival of the princes and 
commanders, who were to lead the most effective and best organized of the sol- 
diers of the cross. This was salutary counsel, and the Hermit afterwards had reason 
to regret that he did not take it ; but the great chiefs were not yet ready to set out, 
and other bands were still to precede them on their march, with the same want 
of discipline, and the same blind zeal. 

A priest, named Gotschalk, had preached the crusade in many of the German 
provinces. Incited by his harangues, about 20,000 men assembled in arms and 
took an oath to fight against the infidels. Gotschalk, who, like Peter the Hermit, 
was looked upon as a man inspired by God, was chosen to lead them. Towards 
the end of the summer they reached Hungary, and as the vintage had been 
plentiful, they found abundant temptation to excess. In the midst of their 
debauchery, they forgot alike the cause to which they were engaged, the motives 
that had induced them to leave their homes, and the object they had in view ; and 
plunder, rape, and murder marked every step of their march. Coloman, in Avhom 
a courageous spirit was concealed beneath a feeble and deformed body, assembled 
a large body of troops to restrain their violence and outrages. But the soldiers of 
Gotschalk were not wanting in valour, and defended themselves so vigorously that 
the Hungarians began to fear that, if driven to desperation, they might prove more 
than a match for them, and therefore resolved to have recoiirse to stratagem to 
subdue them. Coloman's general therefore pretended to desire a cessation of 
hostilities, and the Hungarian chiefs entered the camp of the Crusaders as friends. 
The Germans laid aside their arms in perfect confidence, but no sooner had 
they done so, than, on a signal being given, the Himgarians fell upon them and 
slaughtered them without mercy. 

We should feel some surprise in reading of these excesses of the first Crusaders, 
if we failed to remember that they belonged to the lowest and most degraded class 
of the people. The civil wars, which at that time were of daily occurrence in 
every country on the continent, had created great numbers of vagabonds and 
adventurers, who wandered from place to place, subsisting upon whatever chance 
or robbery threw in their way. Germany was the scene of more troubles than any 
part of western Europe, and was consequently full of men brought up in brigandage 
■ — the very scum of society — and almost all these enrolled themselves under the 
banner of the cross, and carried with them into the holy war the licentious and 
mutinous spirit which had animated them in their native land.'^' 

The notion which at first possessed the Crusaders was that they were bound 
only to war against the Saracens, for the delivery of the Holy Sepulchre ; but they 

* Keightley's " Crusaders," vol. i, p. 54. 



COUNT EMTCO AJS'D WILLIAM THE CARPENTER. 55 

soon began to believe, that, as soldiers of Christ, it was their duty to commence 
hostilities against His enemies wherever they met with them. " What !" they 
cried, " what ! are Ave going to seek the enemies of God beyond the seas, when the 
Jews, His most cruel enemies, are close at hand ?" And upon the poor Jews fell 
all the weight of their fanaticism. In many of the chief towns of Germany — 
Worms, Treves, Mentz, and Spires — they were massacred en masse; from the child 
unborn to the toothless old man — none were spared. When this pious duty had 
been performed, the scattered bands who had been engaged in it united under the 
command of a certain Count Emico, and a man named William the Carpenter, so 
called from the weight of his blows, and some other knights of evil fame, noted 
for deeds of violence and cruelty. At their head were carried a goose and a he- 
goat, which they believed to be filled with the Holy Ghost, and on whose aid they 
relied for safety and success. On they went, burning, plundering, robbing, 
massacring, until they arrived at Merseburgh, a town on the confines of Hungary. 
They threw a bridge across the Danube, and attacked the town. Coloman was 
within, and, hearing that the Crusaders had mounted the walls, he Avas preparing 
for flight, when a panic seized them, and they fled precipitately, leaving their 
baggage behind. The Hungarians pursued them, and slaughtered great numbers ; 
those who escaped returned home, or joined other armies of pilgrims in Germany 
or Apulia. Count Emico died in Germany ; and the old traditions of the country 
related that long afterwards the ghosts of himself and many of his companions 
might be seen at night in the neighbourhood of Worms, cased in red-hot armour, 
uttering the most fearful groans, and imploring the prayers and alms of the 
faithful to deliver them from their torments. 

The main body of the Crusaders at last prepared to march. The misfortunes 
which had befallen the forces Avhich had preceded them furnished a useful warning 
of the dangers of neglect of discipline. Consequently, when Godfrey of Bouillon 
and the other distinguished leaders began their journey, they maintained the 
strictest order, and inflicted instant punishment upon all who were found guilty of 
any misdemeanour in the countries through which they passed. When they 
arrived upon the confines of Hungary, Godfrey sent forward to Coloman twelve 
knights, who were instructed to say that they had heard that several pilgrims had 
lost their lives in his dominions ; and that they were come to avenge them, if they 
had perished unjustly, but if otherwise they would exercise no hostilities. Coloman, 
in reply, gave a faithful account of the atrocities Avhich the pilgrims had com- 
mitted, and in the following letter expressed his desire for an interview with the 
duke :— * " King Coloman sends greeting to the Duke of Bouillon and to all the 
Christians. Thy reputation, my dear duke, hath assured me that thou art a 
powerful and just man in thine own country, and pious and honourable wherever 
thou goest, esteemed and praised by all Avho know thee. I, also, have always 

* Michaud's "Hist, cles Croisades," vol, i. p, 109, 



56 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

loved thee, and my chief desire at present is to see thee, and to know thee."^ 
Godfrey consented to the interview, and on the appointed day repaired to the 
Castle of Leperon with three hundred nobles, where the king advanced to meet 
him. All difficulties were speedily arranged; Coloman granted a free passage 
and a market, but required that Godfrey's brother, Baldwin, and his wife and 
attendants, should be given as hostages for the fulfilment of their agreement. 
Baldwin, either suspicious of danger, or scorning to become a pledge, positively 
refused to consent. " Then," said the duke, " I will be the hostage myself, in 
reliance upon the honour of the king and the good conduct of the pilgrims." 
Baldwin was thus shamed into compliance. The Hungarians were commanded 
to furnish a market, and to sell the provisions with good weight and measure, and 
the pilgrims were strictly enjoined by their chiefs to abstain from plunder on pain 
of death. The stipulations were strictly observed upon both sides. The Crusaders 
pursued their march in peace to the frontier, where the Hungarian king took an 
affectionate leave of the duke, and offered up prayers for the success of his 
enterprise. 

Coloman, who, from his love of learning, was surnamed Bibliophilus, or the 
hook-lover, had his attention speedily called away from the Crusaders to affairs of 
no less importance in Croatia. That kingdom, it may be remembered, had been 
secured to Helena, the widow of Peter Crecimir, a daughter of Bela, king of 
Hungary, by the arms of Ladislaus. When she found herself firmly esta- 
blished upon the throne, she chose, as her principal adviser, Almos, the nephew of 
Ladislaus. On the death of the queen, Ladislaus took possession of her dominions 
by the right of succession and of conquest ; but, in place of incorporating them 
with Hungary, bestowed them upon Almos, as a kingdom dependent upon the 
Hungarian crown. 

In Coloman' s reign, a noble named Peter laid claim to the supreme power, and 
the former took up arms for his subjugation. In a battle lost by the Croats, Peter 
was slain, and the Hungarian king finally abolished royalty in that country, and 
annexed it to his own dominions. Dalmatia, which had been bought back by 
Alexis, the Grecian emperor, and placed under the protectorate of the Doge of 
Venice, Vitale Fallieri, had been invaded by the Normans. The Venetians, whose 
land forces were but feeble, sought aid from Coloman, who after having expelled 
the Normans, carried his arms as far as Apulia, Avhere Duke Roger was forced to 
agree to a treaty, the terms of which were dictated by his enemies. From that time 
(1096), Dalmatia became a part of Hungary, and Coloman, having been crowned 
king of Croatia and Dalmatia, re-organised the ancient rights of the Dalmatian 
people. Quarrels with the Venetians and Eussians, which, neither in their details 
nor in their results, possess much historical interest, save that in one of the battles 
with the Venetians, touching the territory of Dalmatia, the Doge Ordalafa Fallieri 

* " La Hongrie Historique," p. 28. 



ACCESSION OF STEPHEN II. 57- 

was slain — occupied the remainder of Coloman's life. After long wars and 
intrigues with Almos, his youngest brother, the latter fell into his hands, and with 
barbarous cruelty he deprived both him and his son Bela of sight. The king died 
soon after, in 1114, in the twenty-fifth year of his reign, which, by his warlike 
exploits abroad and diligent and wise attention to the arts of peace at home, 
would have been dignified and glorified, if it had not been stained by this 
domestic tragedy. He left his crown to his son Stephen II 

When Stephen ascended the throne he was but a beardless boy,and a council of 
magnates was appointed to advise him, and under their auspices the aifairs of 
government were administered for nearly eight years with great wisdom and 
discretion. No sooner had the king attained his majority, however, than he 
asserted all his prerogative with an impetuosity that alarmed and astonished his 
subjects, and procured for him, the surname of the Lightning. In pride, caprice, 
and cruelty, he was fully equal to his father, and in promptness for war he was in 
nowise his inferior. The Venetians had began to ravage Dalmatia, and he 
instantly resolved to chastise them for their insolence, and in the ninth year of his 
reign marched an army into that province, where he was received by the inhabit- 
ants with joyful acclamations, and having sent reinforcements to the garrisons of 
all the towns, he assured the people of his watchful care and protection, and 
returned into Hungary. He then turned his arms against the Poles, whom he 
accused of offering many insults to his father in times of difficulty and danger, and 
of having encroached upon the frontier, wreaked vengeance upon them by laying 
waste the country for many miles with fire and sword, and carried oif a great 
number of captives. 

Disputes next arose with the king or duke of Bohemia, whom Stephen 
invited to an interview, at which their mutual differences might, if possible, be 
amicably settled. A Hungarian refugee in Bohemia, wishing, if possible, to 
prolong the discord between the two courts, wrote to each of the monarchs, 
informing him that the other had formed a plot to carry him off by force from the 
place of meeting, and warned him against coming without a guard. The con- 
sequence was, that each appeared attended by a large armed force, and incensed by 
the other's treachery, their followers were not long in coming to blows. The 
Hungarians, seized with a panic, speedily took to flight, and rode furiously into the 
camp. The king and his officers, taken by surprise, mounted their horses and 
galloped off the field in dismay. The palatine at this moment came up with a 
reserve, and staying the fugitives, restored the fortune of the day. After a sharp 
and murderous encounter the Bohemians gave way and fled, and the palatine and 
his companions had the satisfaction of hearing from the lips of Stephen a warm 
eulogium upon their valour and watchfulness. The mistake was afterwards dis- 
covered, but too late to inflict upon Soltha, the cause of all the disturbance and 
loss of life, the punishment which his deceit merited, as he had secured his safety 
by timely flight. 



68 HISTORY OP HXTNGARY, 

The king, by this time as impetuous in his passions as in his policy, was 
exciting great and general indignation by the notorious licentiousness of his 
manners, by which the ladies of some of the highest families in the land were 
daily subjected to insult and outrage. The magnates urged him strongly to marry, 
and to their great surprise, he, without much hesitation, signified his intention 
of complying with their request, and shortly after espoused the daughter of Robert 
of Guiscard, the Norman duke of Sicily and Apulia, a woman famous for her 
beauty and virtue. The nuptials were celebrated with great pomp ; but scarcely 
had they been concluded, when he prepared to interfere in a quarrel between two 
rival claim.ants of the ducal throne in Russia, one of whom claimed his aid. But 
so opposed were the magnates to any intervention in a dispute which in nowise 
concerned Hungary, and which, however it might be decided, could bring her no 
advantage, that he was compelled to abandon the enterprise, even after he had 
entered the Russian territory. 

He next turned his army against the Greek empire, his indignation being 
roused by a domestic broil, which, if had not given rise to a bloody war, history 
might well have passed over in silence. Ladislaus had given his daughter Prisca 
in marriage to Kalo (John), the son and colleague of the Greek emperor Alexis 
Commenus. This monarch thought fit upon one occasion to apply to Stephen the 
epithets "inhuman" and "cruel," which his wife, jealous of her kinsman's 
honour, instantly repelled and retorted, whereupon her lord, forgetful of his 
dignity, inflicted upon her a severe beating. She appears to have taken the 
chastisement greatly to heart, as she immediately laid her grievance before the 
Hungarian king, who resolved to avenge the insult by force of arms, and invaded 
the emperor's dominions, laying'them waste with fire and sword. The Hungarians, 
after sustaining several severe reverses from the disciplined phalanxes of the Greek 
infantry, were fain to sue for peace, which was at last made, when each party had 
done the other vast injury without obtaining any real advantage for itself. During 
the campaign, Stephen distinguished himself by his merciless cruelty to the 
captives, upon whom he heaped every indignity that ingenuity could devise or 
hatred prompt. His blind old uncle, Almos, he banished into Macedonia, Avhere 
he was. cordially received by the Greeks, and lived many years in dignified 
retirement, afi'ording shelter and hospitality to all those of his countrymen, whom 
the intrigues of faction or the displeasixre of the monarch had driven from their 
native land. 

When Stephen found his end approaching, and that he would, in all 
probability, die childless, he sent for his cousin Bela, whom his father had 
cruelly blinded, adopted him as his son, and named him his heir. This was 
his last public act of importance. He died in the eighteenth year of his reign, 
in 1131. 

Bela II., though blind, proved himself a man of signal ability. He incorporated 
Bosnia with Hungary, and expelled the Venetians from many seaports on the 



DEFEAT OF HENRT OF AUSTRU. 5f 

Adriatic, of which, during the closing years of the late king's reign, they had 
taken possession. He also successfully suppressed a combination formed against 
him by the Poles and Russians by the machinations of Borick, an illegitimate son 
of the late king. He left four sons, Geysa, Ladislaus, Stephen, and Almos, tho 
eldest of Avhom, Geysa H., succeeded him, in 1141. 

Geysa had not attained the age of manhood Avhen. he ascended the throne, but 
he already gave evidences of great ability, combined with great gentleness and 
humanity. He was crowned Avith great pomp at Alba, on St. Cecilia's day, and 
immediately chose for his ministers some of the ablest men in the kingdom. In 
the very first year of his reign, a war broke out with Germany, of which Austria, 
then as now, restless and grasping, was said to be the cause. Henry, duke of 
Austria, learning that a mere boy had succeeded to the crown of Hungary, thought 
this would be a favourable opportunity for making a descent upon his territory 
and appropriating to himself whatever fortune might throw in his way. He was 
at that period enabled to bring a large auxiliary force into the field, as he was 
guardian of Henry the Lion, a minor, who ruled over Saxony and Bavaria, and 
whose troops he could employ in the furtherance of his designs. His first step 
was to surprise and capture Presburg, a town on the frontier, which Avas con- 
sidered the key of Hungary. When the news reached the court, the consternation 
was great. The diet was instantly summoned, and by their advice the king 
ordered a general levy of all the forces of the country for its defence against the 
invaders. The insurrection and the Kiraly Sereg instantly rose in arms in ansAver 
to the appeal, and called u,pon the young king Avith the utmost enthusiasm to lead 
them against the enemy. Upon reaching the frontier, they found the Germans 
draAvn up in order of battle to receive them. Geysa instantly gave the signal for- 
action, though his oAvn army Avas inferior in number. The engagement Avas long 
and bloody, and for a great length of time it seemed doubtful to Avhich side fortune 
would assign the victory. The Germans fought under the eye of their leader, Avho Avas 
himself present in the heat of the encounter, encouraging them by his voice and 
example ; and their heavy cavalry seemed several times on the point of over- 
whelming the light squadrons of the Magyars. But the fate of Hungary depended 
on the issue ; and the hussars, returning again and again to the charge, flung 
themselves on the enemy Avith a reckless hardihood which at last began to take 
effect, and Henry's veteran legions— many of them groAvn grey in the western 
Avars — turned and fled, and a general route followed, in Avhich the duke had great 
difficulty in escaping. Seven thousand Germans Avere left dead upon the fleld, 
and of the Hungarians not more than three thousand. The spoils of the van- 
quished were appropriated by Geysa to the endoAvment of churches, and the 
offering of masses for the repose of the souls of the slain. 

A short time after this battle, the preaching of St. Bernard aroused in the minds 
of the people of France and Germany the desire for another crusade. It Avas 
represented to them, that Godfrey and Tancred, and their small bands of folloAvers, 



60 HISTORY OF HTTNGARY. 

who held the holy places in Palestine against hosts of infidels, were in danger of 
being overwhelmed by their adversaries, if they did not receive speedy succour. 
Great excitement was soon raised, and the scenes which occurred in 1096 were 
now enacted over again. The principal leaders of the second expedition were 
Louis YII. of France, and Conrad, emperor of Germany. The latter led his forces 
throuo-h Hungary; and notwithstanding the sacred character of the mission upon 
which he was engaged, he could ill conceal his lurking enmity to the Magyars. 
Although Geysa had cheerfully granted him a free passage, the German troops 
extorted money from the monasteries and churches upon their way, and committed 
various outrages upon the peasantry, 

Louis of France soon after passed along the same route, but he carefully 
restrained the pilgrims from outraging the hospitahty which had been granted 
them. The fate that awaited them was terrible : wasted by pestilence, famine, 
thirst, and the arrows of the enemy, they led back their shattered forces in 1152, 
without having attained one object for which they had set out. 

The Crusaders had hardly passed on their way, when more troubles arose on 
the side of the Russians, who ever seemed weary of their frozen wastes, and 
longing to precipitate themselves upon their neighbours. They were, as usual, 
defeated. 

Under the reign of Geysa IL, emigrants from Germany and Flanders se tried in 
Sepucza in the north of Hungary, where they formed a distinct people, and were 
governed by their own counts. This was another addition to the evils of divided 
races, so detrimental to Hungarian nationality. When Stephen III. ascended the 
throne, his younger brother, Bela, was named by the emperor of the East heir 
presumptive to the Byzantine empire, and received in possession the duchies of 
Sirmia, Sclavonia, and Croatia. But afterwards, in consequence of the empress 
giving birth to a son, his claim w^as destroyed, and he became simply king of 
Hungary. Some time afterwards, troubles began to break out in Gallicia, now 
known as Poland ; and the country was put imder the protection of the king of 
Hungary. In IISS, Bela III. asserted this claim against Casmir, the old duke of 
Gallicia, and for some time the Hungarian king bore also the title of king of 
Poland. It was in virtue of this right (if right it may be called) that Austria took 
part in the dismemberment of that xmfortunate country. Bela III. married, as his 
second wife, Margaret, daughter of Louis VII., king of France. This lady was 
the means of introducing into Hungary a great deal of the refinement and elegance 
which, even at that early period, distinguished the French court. The Magyar 
youth began to repair to Paris to complete their education and study foreign 
manners ; and a university, upon the model of that of Paris, was estabhshed in 
Vesprim, a central town of Hungary. After the death of Bela, Henry VI., 
emperor of Germany, determined upon sending an army to aid the Crusaders in 
Palestine. At the head of the quota furnished by Hixngary, Margaret, the 
youthful widow, set out in person. What was her motive for this strange imder- 



WARS WITH THE GREEK EMPEROR. 



61 




62 HISTORY OF HUTSTGARY. 

taking we know not, unless it were that weary longing for rest and consola- 
tion in another world, which finely-wrought natures then thought purchase- 
able only by privation and toil in this. But this picture of female youth and 
beauty setting out upon a distant and perilous expedition, surrounded by the fierce 
warriors of the cross, is one of those pleasing gleams of light which now and then 
shoot across the heavy darkness of the middle ages, Margaret died in Palestine. 

Emeric, who succeeded Bela III., followed up the conquests of his predecessor, 
and subdued Bulgaria and Servia. Andrew, a brother of the king, governed 
Croatia, as a vassal of the Hungarian crown. 

We have now arrived at one of the most memorable periods in the history of 
^ Hungary, that which witnessed the reform of the constitution. The close 
,' resemblance existing between this important event and the grant of our own 
■ Magna Charta by King John, must possess the deepest interest for every English 
reader. Notwithstanding the foreign wars and intestine broils to which Hungary 
had for centuries been a prey, the real power of the government rested entirely in 
the hands of the king. The great dignitaries of the state did not hold their ofiices 
in hereditary succession, or even for life. They could be at any moment deprived 
of them for no better reason than the sovereign's pleasure ; but the very fact of 
their meeting together in the diet, or great council of the nation, secured to them 
influence, which was becoming every day more and more powerful, and promised at 
no distant day the right, and perhaps the power, of taking exception to the arbitary 
acts of the monarch. On the other hand the organisation of the counties was 
going to decay, though it formed the best bulwark against domestic tyranny or foreign 
invasion. Things were in this position, when Andrew II., surnamed Hierosolymi- 
tanus, a feeble and vain prince, ascended the throne. He carried on war fot a con~ 
siderable length of time against the Russians and the Saracens in the Holy Land, 
without reflecting upon the evils caused by his absence from his dominions, and the 
lavish expenditure of blood and treasure which his long contests entailed upon the 
kingdom. Upon his return he formd the aff'ectlons of the people entirely 
alienated, and was astonished by the loud and general outcry raised on every side 
against his extravagance. His quarrels with his son Bela still further increased 
the number of his enemies. His queen, Gertrude, a Avoman of very masculine 
disposition, but who had acquired this manly vigour at the expense of her AVoman*s 
tenderness and truth, sought to allay the storm by seizing upon the reins of 
government in her own name. Her unfaithfulness to the instincts of her sex, and 
to the commonest dictates of honour and religion, wrought her own and her 
husband's ruin. She encouraged and aided her brother in an attempt to seduce 
the wife of a proud and haughty noble, Benedict Bor (the famous Bank Ban) the 
palatine of the kingdom. Enraged at the insult and dishonour, Benedict rushed 
into the palace, followed by some friends, and struck the queen dead on the spot. 
The assassins were executed, but this only irritated the malcontents still'moTe. 
Andrew lost all authority, and with characteristic imbecility, applied to the Pope 



THE BTJLLA AUREA. 63 

to re-establisli tranquillity. After a long struggle, the prince Bela undertook to 
act as mediator between the contending parties ; and through his instrumentality, 
important concessions were obtained from the king, and ratified by him at a diet 
held in 1231. He acknowledged the legislative assemblies to have the same rights 
as himself, and he confessed that those privileges of the nobility, which Saint 
Stephen had established upon a firm basis, but which his successors had failed to 
recognise fully, had been violated by him also. He solemnly confirmed in their 
fullest extent all the political privileges claimed by the nobles and the free 
inhabitants of the country, with the addition of the following clause : — " That 
every time that the king or his descendants should violate the privileges of the 
Magyar nation, the nobles should be at liberty to rise up, sword in hand, to oppose 
this breach of the law, without being liable to the charge of high treason." This 
was a concession at the same time just and dangerous. The right of resistance 
should be ever present to the eyes of the government ; but the people should never 
look upon it, save as the closing scene in a long vista of unavailing remonstrance 
and entreaty. In addition to the confirmation of their old privileges, the Magyar 
aristocracy obtained some new ones. They were declared free of taxes, and none 
of its members could be placed under arrest except for clearly proved violations of 
law. They were obliged to arm at their own expense, and attend the king in 
warlike array as far as the frontiers of their own country ; but, if farther, the 
sovereign should bear the cost. The latter was forbidden to make any office or 
employment hereditary, or to commit the administration of the finances to Jews or 
Mahometans; and it was strictly stipulated that a diet should every year be 
convoked upon St. Stephen's day. All these articles, thirty-one in number, v^rere 
united in a code, and became the basis of the aristo-democratic constitution, 
which prevailed in Hungary, with slight modifications, up to the close of the late 
war, commonly called Bulla Aurea, or the " Golden Bull." Andrew was the 
first Magyar king who was obliged to take an oath, at his coronation, to be 
faithful to the constitution. Hungary was thus one of the first countries in Europe 
to obtain efiectual guarantees for her liberty ; and although her Bulla Aurea, like 
our Magna Charta, bears unmistakable marks of its feudal origin, it has, never- 
theless, every claim to be considered a reforrn of true and lasting value. It must 
not be forgotten that the term " Magyar nobles," or " free men," at that time 
included the whole of the conquering nation. 

Bela IV. succeeded to his father, Andrew II. After he had ascended the 
throne, he showed great force of character, but, at the same time, a great leaning 
to arbitrary measures. A calamity fell upon Hungary during his reign, from the 
effects of which she did not recover for many generations, A tribe of the Hunnic 
race arose about this time, and rendered itself powerful by its conquests imder the 
leadership of its chief, Mogol, or Mogul, whose name it assumed. Under one of 
his successors, Zengis Khan, it spread terror through the whole of- Asia ; but that 
quarter of the world not proving enough to satisfy its ambition, it precipitated 



64 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 



itself upon Europe. Poland and Russia bore the first shock of the invasion, 
but it soon spread to the plains of Hungary, and left them waste and silent as a 







pathless desert. After having massacred great numbers of the population, the 
Moguls retreated, carrying with them thousands of captives. 



THE COUNTY ASSEMBLIES. 65 

Under this terrible calamity, Bela sought in vain for assistance from the duke 
of Austria. Hungary was covered with dead bodies and ruined houses, but the 
king was not discouraged. He introduced a number of German colonists for the 
cultivation of the soil, and appealed to the people to support him in the execution 
of the measures designed to ensure their own safety. 

Amongst a number of other useful measures, he provided for the regular meeting 
of the county assemblies. These assemblies were one of the most important of 
the privileges of the Hungarian people. Their rights, their duties, and their con- 
nexion with the supreme power of the state, bore, as we have already said, a close 
resemblance to those of the states of the American Union. The sovereign autho- 
rity was vested in the king and the diet with regard to questions of general 
interest only. If the student, reading of the thousand perils and disasters through . 
which the Magyar nation has passed, unparalleled for their number and magni- 
tude in the history of the world, should ask what was the safeguard of Hungarian 
liberty while undergoing an ordeal so trying, we can give him no other 
answer than refer him to the county assemblies. The sittings were all in public, 
and the eyes of the country were upon all the proceedings. There was the 
highest of all motives for a man's doing his duty fearlessly. The king or the 
minister might sway or corrupt the diet, but his labour was in vain whilst the 
freely elected representatives of the people were meeting in every county to 
watch over the public liberty, and whose interests and sympathies coinciding with 
those of their constituencies, in the midst of whom they liA'ed and deliberated, 
were the most effectual guarantees against any betrayal of the confidence reposed 
in them. Individuals may be traitors, but no treacherous representative body, save 
the Irish parliament, has ever been heard of in history. It was in these assemblies 
that the Hungarians received that political education which has rendered them so 
much superior to all the nations of eastern Europe. The happy distinction 
between the legislative and executive powers, the best safeguard of freedom, was 
recognised by them before any other people in the world. 

Bela, when he had in some measure repaired the disasters inflicted by the 
famine and the invasion,' proceeded to chastise Austria for her refusal to assist 
him in his time of need. Frederic, the archduke, was killed in the campaign, 
and by a treaty entered into at its close, Hungary obtained the whole of Styria, 
and an extension of the frontiers of Dalmatia. Bulgaria was also incorporated 
with the Magyar kingdom as a dependent province. A short time afterwards the 
Moguls again appeared, but were this time defeated with tremendous slaughter, 
30,000 men being killed in one battle. 

It is at this epoch that the house of Hapsburgh, which was destined to exercise 
so baneful an influence upon the future of the Hungarian nation, first appears 
upon the scene. There was an implacable rivalry going on between Rodolph of 

Hapsburgh and Ottochar, the rightful king of Bohemia, and the duke of Austria. 

The former sought the aid of the Magyar king, and by means of it expelled his 

G 



[^ 



^6, HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

dtttagohist from his dominions, and "laid the foundation of liis own dynasty. It 
■Was the eagle lending his plume to wing the arrow that was "to drink his owii life- 
Blood. The histofy of tlie relations of the Hapsburgh family with the Magyars, 
Kossuth has well designatedj " a continued perjury." 

All the national writers agree in their - opinion of the great merits of Bela IV.- 
During his long reign he surrounded himself and his kingdom Avith glory.' No 
6ther prince has ever encountered greater difficulties, and none ever surmounted 
them with so much courage aiid ability. Before -his death he gave his grand- 
daughter, Mary, in marriage to Charles Martel, prince of Salerno, a scion of the 
bouse oi _jA-a»fefia — an alliance which paved the way for the accession of a Tsranch 
of this French family to the Hungarian throne." " ■ 

There is nothing worthy of remark in the reigns of his successors, until we come' 
t0 Andrew III., the last of the dynasty of Arpad; The Pope, who considered 
Hungary a fief of the Holy See, opposed his election, and claimed the crown for 
Charles Martel, ta whom we have just been referring. Rodolph of Hapsburgh, 
on the other hand, wished to place his son Albert upon the throne. Andrew III, 
espoused Agnes of Austria, and it isupon this marriage that Austria afterwards 
based her pretensions to the Magyar crown. " 

With a view of bringing about a reconciliation between the contending parties in 
these disputes, the king convened a grand diet of the nation upon the plain of 
Eakos. This was the first time the great assembly- of the Magyars was held in 
the open air. It is curious to find this singular custom equally prevalent amongst 
the Poles and Hungarians. The nobles of both countries met on horseback, to" 
elect a king, upon a vast meadow, clothed in their most splendid garments, a single 
gentleman often carrying his whole fortune in his own accoutrements, and the rich 
housings of his steed. There are a number of interesting circumstances, however, 
in connexion- with the Polish Diet, into which at present it is not our provin.ce to 
enter. 

Andrew III. died in 1301 without any heir, and with him ended the dynasty of 
Arpad. . 

At this period the Hungarian people had made no inconsiderable amount of 
progress, not in political knowledge only, but in science and the industrial arts. 
St. Stephen had declared the inviolability of private property, and decreed its! 
transmission from one generation to another by hereditary descent. The Magyars 
did not reserve to themselves alone the enjoyment of these political rights and 
liberties. Amongst the free inhabitants of their country were comprised all those 
stranger populations who had voluntarily submitted to their rule, and even the 
immigrants who had more recently entered their territory, and claimed to be con- 
sidered as their guests. Those only who were taken Avith arms in their hands, and 
those of the Hungarians who were convicted of theft or adultery, who sought to 
escape from military service, or W'ho remained obstinately attached to paganism, 
after the rest of the nation had embraced Christianity, were condemned to a state 



PKOGRESS IN CIVILISATION. 67 

of slavery or serfdom. The laws against stealing, and against the illicit intercourse 
of the seXes, were more than ordinarily severe ; and any freeman who was 
detected in an amorous intrigue with the domestic of another was sentenced 
to have his head shaved. Although the sale of women was strictlj' forbidden after 
the introduction of Christianity, these rigorous measures were indispensably 
necessary to root out the old custom of polygamy. The military superintendents 
(ewreok) formed a police service, and travellers were obliged to be provided with a 
passport or safe conduct. Royal messengers kept up postal communication between 
all parts of the kingdom, and each county was obliged to furnish them with relays 
of horses. This was the origin of those post-houses (vorspann) which are seen in 
every part of the counti-y and of which the tourist is obliged to avail himself at the 
present day. The expenses of the government were defrayed by the revenues of 
the royal domains, that is, by the cultivation of the crown lands, and the produce 
of the salt and geld mines, and by the imposition of a small duty upon cer#in 
articles sold in the markets. The administration of the finances was conducted 
with great prudence and ability. As in western Europe, the towns arose, in nearly 
every case, in the neighbourhood of the great fortresses or castles, and became 
enlarged and enriched by the extension of industrial employment, and the influx of 
foreign colonists; the Hungarians, in general, preferring living in the open 
country. Many of these towns became in process of time independent of the 
chatelain, or lord of the castle, and were then called free or roi/al All strangers 
paid a tax, by way of compensation for the protection afforded them, and their 
share in the political privileges, and thus greatly augmented the revenue. The 
consequence of this fixed internal organisation, and the security afforded to labour 
and property, was a rapid increase in the commerce and manufactures of the 
kingdom. The agricultural produce was every year more than sufficient for home 
consumption, and the utmost attention was given by the government to the promo- 
tion of industrial employment. St. Stephen sent shoemakers, carpenters, wheel- 
Avrights, &c., at his own expense, through most of the towns in his dominion^ for 
the purpose of imparting a knowledge of the manual arts to those desirous of 
acquiring them. The Magyars were celebrated at an early period for their skill in 
tanning, and Hungarian leather was in great demand all over Europe ; they 
excelled also in dressing the furs, which formed pavt of their rich national costume. 
Their foreign commerce was also extensive. Their merchants had large counting 
and Warehouses at Constantinople for carrying on their trade with the East. 'J hey 
supplied the northern countries with linen, woollen cloth, and arms, and the 
Germans with corn, cattle, and ale. They received their spices and other foreign 
products from Venice and Dalmatia, and supported a powerful and well-manned 
navy fjr the protection of their comraercs. 

The foregoing chapiera have shown us a bavbarous, nomalic people, from the 
central plains i f Asia, possessing all the coarseness and^unbiilled pi.ssion of the 
savage state, but full of courage, energy, and self-confidence, precipitating itself 

G 2 



68' HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

upon the worn-out civilisation of the Roman empire, and conquering new seats in 
the heart of another hemisphere. From the chaos which succeeded the breaking 
up of the old order of things, it arose a young and hardy nation, girding its loins 
to run the race of civilisation and progress with the other races of modern 
Europe. We have seen its conversion to the mild doctrines of Christianity ; and 
have watched with interest its growth and improvement in the arts of peace, and 
its close adherence to the older and sterner virtues of the warrior. We have seen 
it every day coming out stronger and more self-reliant from the rude shocks and 
rough turmoils of the middle ages, and gradually building up a constitutional 
monarchy like our own, — an undertaking the more difficult, because there was 
then no model to guide in the formation of free institutions. The progress has 
been hitherto slow, and it may be, at times painful, but always successful. We 
have now arrived at the era of power, influence, and glory, in which Hungary Avas 
thqrfjulwark of Europe against the terrible assaults of the Turks, and its leader in 
arts, and law, and commerce. 

When the Magyars placed Almos, the son of Arpad, upon the throne, it was 
not so much a recognition of his hereditary right to th.e succession, as an acknow- 
ledgment of the great services of his father, and an expression of their veneration 
for his talents and virtue. From the same motives they gave up entirely their 
tmdoubted right to elect their monarchs, as long as there remained a scion of the 
house of Arpad to wear the crown ; but when, at the death of Andrew III., the 
dynasty became extinct, they resumed the exercise of their prerogative, and four 
candidates immediately appeared to claim their suffrages. Two of them, Venceslas 
and Otho, obtained it one after the other, not so much from their intrinsic merits, 
as because the remaining candidate, Charles Robert of Anjou, was the favourite of 
the Pope, who endeavoured to procure his election by lavish threats of excommunica- 
tion and anathema. The two former, however, having been successively driven 
from the kingdom, the Magyars succeeded in overcoming their repugnance 
towards Charles as the nominee of the Holy See, and chose him as their king. 
Their dislike to him arose from the obnoxious interference with their constitu- 
tional privileges made on his behalf by the Pope, whose sympathies and interests 
have in all ages so often run counter to those of the people. 



CHAPTER VI. 

ACCESSION OF THE HOUSE OE ANJOU. CHAKIiES K.OBERT. 

Chables was the son of Charles Martel, and nephew of Charles II, of Naples, who 
was nephew of the celebrated St. Louis, king of France ; and, notwithstanding 
the inauspicious circumstances under which he ascended the throne, the Hun- 
garians had afterwards reason to remember him with pleasure, as one of the wisest 
and ablest of their monarchs. Notwithstanding his legitimate election, some of 
the great nobles refused to acknowledge him, and one of their number, Mathew 
Csak, perhaps better known as Count Trencin, who possessed immense estates at 
the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, refused to do him homage, and shutting 
himself up in his castle, bid him defiance. The king immediately put himself at 
the head of an armed force, and proceeded to enforce submission to the national 
will ; but so powerful was the rebel lord, that it was only after a tedious war, and 
great loss, that he was compelled to surrender. At the siege of the fortress of 
Saros, which was commanded by Demetrius on behalf of Count Trencin, and was 
carried by storm after a gallant defence, the sons of Elias Goergey, the count of the 
German colony of Sepucza, fought with unshaken courage at the side of the king in 
defence of the law and the constitution. Little did they think that a man of their 
race would afterwards make their very name a synonyme through all Europe 
for whatever is traitorous and base. Arthur Goergey, the recreant of 1848, is 
the lineal descendant of one of them. As soon as peace was restored, Charles, 
who was now for the second time a widower, married the Polish princess 
Elizabeth, and fixed his residence in the fortress of Visegrad, upon the Danube. 
Crowning the summit of a lofty hill, it delighted the ey^e by its picturesque situa- 
tion, and astonished the visitor upon a nearer approach by its grandeur and extent. 
In the hands of Charles, it became one of the most magnificent royal residences in 
Europe. He carried to its embellishment all the French taste for what is showy 
and imposing, chastened and refined by a diligent study and high appreciation of 
the classic models of antiquity. Nor was his attention diverted from the work by 
the premature and lamented death of his two sons, or the constant anxiety caused 
by the ambitious designs of Paul Subies, who claimed the title of Ban of Croatia 
and Bosnia. 

An outrage, disgusting for its coarseness, and rendered terrible by its sanguinary 
results, at length disturbed the course of this prosperous and happy reign. 
Casimir of Poland, afterwards surnamed the Great, the brother of the queen, a 



70 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

man of dissolute habits and violent temper, paid a visit to the Hungarian court, 
for the purpose of regulating the affairs of the Order of Teutonic knights under 
the immediate superintendence of Charles Robert. Falling violently in love with 
one of the queen's maids of honour, Casimir brought to bear all the tactics 
acquired in a long course of dissipation, declarations of the warmest love, prayers, 
entreaties, and splendid offers, without making any impression upon the cold 
virtue of the Magyar lady. This unsuccessful wooing inflamed his passion still 
more, and, seizing a favourable opportunity, he obtained by brutal force what 
purity and innocence had steadily denied him. 

The unfortunate girl, overwhelmed with grief and shame, fled from the palace^ 
and sought relief in pouring out her sorrows to her father, Felix Zacs, a Hun- 
garian noble. Roused to fury by the injury and insult, Zacs rushed to the 
apartments of Casimir, swearing to Avash out the disgrace in the heart's blood of 
the offender. But the ravisher had fled immediately upon the perpetration of his 
crime, and the disappointment of not finding him still further increased the rag^ 
of the unhappy father. Losing all command over himself, he entered the room at 
which the royal family were seated at dinner, and struck the queen with his sabre, 
cutting off the four fingers from her right hand. In vain the king attempted to 
defend his wife. Zacs wounded him also, and was about to attack his two sons, 
when three noblemen, with their attendants, entering the .apartment ; they all fell 
upon him at once, and cut him to pieces. 

The royal vengeance did not rest satisfied with the summary punishment thus 
inflicted upon Zacs. The gentlemen of the court went armed to his house, and 
seizing his son, dragged him through the town tied to the tail of a horse, until he 
died from sheer exhaustion. We may excuse this outrage, committed in the first 
mom'ents of rage ; but nothing can palliate the after cruelties ordered by the king 
in a calmer mood, Clara Zacs, the unfortunate lady whose injuries had been 
the cause of all, was compelled to walk through the town, having her nose, lips, 
and fingers cut off; while the crier proclaimed, " This is the punishment of 
traitors !" The king's vengeance extended itself to the second generation, and 
even further. The grandson of Felix Zacs was banished, and the collateral 
members of his family were obliged to save themselves by fiight from torture or 
mutilation. 

This terrible event occurred in 1336. 

Charles Robert's attention was soon turned from this dreadful tragedy to other 
and more honourable employments. In the year 1285, the Tartar Js'oguis, the 
inhabitants of Moldavia, united with the Wallacks, the remains of the Daco- 
Roman colonies, and commenced to devastate Hungary. Having been defeated 
in some sanguinary engagements, they at length settled peaceably between the 
Daiiube and the right bank of the Aluta. The two tribes into which they were 
divided,: uniting under one chieftain, they began to cross the river, and whethei 
it was that Charles Robert was alarmed at their progress, or wished to reduce 



BETROTHAL OP A]\T>REW TO GIOVANNA OF NAPLES. ' 71 

them to a state of complete subjection, he declared war against them, although 
Bessarab, the waywode, paid him homage as his suzerain. Despairing of 
being able to contend against the king in the open field, Bessarab resorted to 
stratagem. Decoying the Magyar army into -a mountain pass by feigning a 
retreat, he suddenly surrounded them on every side, so that, to avoid the destruc- 
tion of his forces, Charles was compelled to sue for peace. The wily waywode 
feigned the most friendly disposition, and protracting the negotiations to as great 
a length as possible, he in the meantime fortified the entrances to the defile, and 
crowned the heights with men-at-arms and archers, ready to pour down showers 
of arrows, and roll heavy rocks upon the Hungarian army at the word of their 
leader. When the Magyars became aware of the full danger of their position, 
their consternation Avas great. They saw every odds that can encourage a soldier, 
on the side of their enemies — numbers, position, and the certainty of a safe reti eat. 
Their only hope lay in forcing the entrance of the gorge without delay ; but long 
ere they reached it, three-fourths; of their number were buried beneath the 
missiles of their assailants, and the king only, and a few nobles, succeeded, after 
a desperate combat, in fighting their way out, sword in hand. 

Charles Robert had naturally but little taste for war, and this catastrophe com- 
pletely convinced him that he would meet with greater success in the smoother 
field of diplomacy. 

Upon the death of his grandfather, as the heir of Charles Martel, he preferred 
his claim to the Neapolitan crown before the papal court' at Avignon. Clement 
v., the Pope, pronoiinced, however, in favour of Robert, the uncle of the 
Hungarian king, a brave and experienced warrior, who was very popular amongst 
the Italians, At the death of the latter, so disgusted was he at the corruptino- in- 
fluence exercised over his own heirs by the French ladies of his court, that he 
determined to leave the crown to one of his nephew's children. He therefore 
sent an embassy to Hungary, inviting Charles Robert to Naples, and requestino- 
him to bring with him his second son Andrew. No sooner had the messao-e 
arrived, than the king set out, accompanied by a numerous and brilliant suite.- 
Upon their arrival at Naples, Robert betrothed his daughter Giovanna, aged only 
six years, to Andrew, the son of Charles Robert, and declared them his heirs, 
Andrew henceforth remained in Italy Avith his tutors, and a suite of Magyar 
gentlemen. 

When Charles Robert regained his kingdom, he found a splendid field for the 
exercise of his diplomatic talents suddenly opened up to him. Vladislas.Loketek, 
the king of Poland, had died during his absence, and his son Casimir, who com^ 
mitted the outrage already mentioned at Visegrad, had succeeded to- the throne. 
The latter was undoubtedly a man of great personal bravery, and possessed some 
celebrity as a warrior and patron of the fine arts ; but he Was given to indulgence 
in sensual pleasures, indolent, and averse to the transaction of serious business. 
Charles rightly judged that such a monarch would be continually placed in 



72 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 



difficulties, from which the resources of his own uncultivated intellect would be 
entirely insufficient to extricate him; and that he would naturally look to him 
as a man of ability, and a near relative, for advice and assistance. 

The event answered his expectations. He was constantly referred to as an 
arbitrator in the troubles which at that time distracted Poland, and his great tact, 
the gentle and winning courtesy of his manners, and his great superiority when 
thus placed in comparison with their own monarch, gradually won for him the 
esteem of the Polish nobles, and caused them to listen with a ready ear to repre- 
sentations which the Magyar king caused to be made to them, of the importance 
of a change in the order of the succession. 




FORTRESS OF VISEGRAD, 



At a meeting held at Visegrad, in 1335, Charles, in the character of a mediator, 
finally succeeded in smoothing away the differences which existed between Casimir- 
and the order of Teutonic knights. In many similar cases he rendered like 
services, always acting the part of a disinterested arbitrator, but at the same time, 
gaining over the noblesse by his smooth flattery and the splendour of his presents. 
He had, nevertheless, a dangerous rival in John, king of Bohemia^ Having 
rendered him important services, however, so dexterously did Charles Robert 
manage, that the margrave of Moravia, who was the rightful heir of the Bohemian 
crown, promised his daughter Margaret in marriage to Louis, eldest son of the 
Magyar king, at the same time engaging to guarantee to him the succession, in 



DEATH or CHAKLES EGBERT. 73 

case Caslmir died without issue. The wife of the latter died childless in May, 
1339, and the Diet of Cracow proclaimed Louis of Hungary heir presumptive. 
Casimir himself came to Visegrad, with a magnificent retinue, to announce the 
good tidings. He was received with the splendour in which Charles delighted, 
and never was the exquisite taste and lofty dignity of the Magyar king displayed 
to better advantage than in this celebration of this consummation of his hopes and 
labours. 

His days were now in the " sere and yellow leaf," and in 1342 he died, after a 
long and brilliant reign of thirty-two years, in which he had done more for the 
promotion of the arts, commerce, and manufactures of his kingdom, and the 
extension of its influence, than any monarch who had gone before him. The 
Hungarians before his death had learned to love him Avith an ardour which more 
than^ atoned for their former dislike. In the greatness of his talents, and the 
splendour of his services, they forgot that he owed his elevation, in some measure 
at least, to the support of a bigoted foreign priest, and remembered only his 
devotion to the Magyar nation, and the proud position to which his exertions had 
raised it. This forms a splendid trait in their character. This willingness to 
abandon prejudices, this homage to talent, to magnanimity, to personal worth, 
without reference to their antecedents, are the surest evidences of a high and 
generous spirit. 

Vast crowds, amongst whom were Casimir of Poland and the margrave of 
Moravia, followed the remains of Charles Robert to the tomb ; and by their 
sorrowing aspect, and lowly-muttered lamentations, furnished the last testimony 
to his valour and wisdom. 



CHAPTER VII. 



LOtriS THE GREAT. 



But the public grief was hushed or forgotten when Louis I. ascended the throne, 
amidst universal acclamations ; in possession of a genius and aptness for affairs 
which gave early promise that his career Avould, by its greater brightness, obscure 
his father's glory. In the commencement of his reign he showed more than usual 
activity, and in an expedition which he directed against the Saxons, his arms 
achieved the most splendid triumphs. This people inhabited many towns of 
Transylvania, to which some of them had come at an early period to submit them- 
selves to the dominion of Chaidemagne ; others had been settled in different parts 
of the country at various times as colonists, after the devastations which had been 
committed by the Asiatic barbarians. Presuming upon the youth and gentleness 
of Louis, immediately after the death of his father, they refused to pay the public 
taxes, and the customary tribute exacted from all foreigners. The king, however, 
entered their territory at the head of a large army, and quickly reduced them to 
submission. The Wallacks, also, who had so successfully resisted his father, 
acknowledged his sway, and ever after remained firmly attached to him. 

An event occurred in Naples about this time which occupied the attention not 
of Hungary only, but of all Europe, and which, from its interest and importance, 
demands as large a share of ours as we can well bestow. Our readers may remem- 
ber the almost premature engagement which was concluded by Charles Robert 
between his son Andrew and Giovanna, the heiress of Robert, king of Naples. 
The young prince, as we have already mentioned, was left at the Neapolitan court 
at the age of six years, to be brought up under the eye of his intended father-in- 
law, who, in order to remove all cause of dispute or division, promised that his 
daughter should succeed him in the kingdom in case she married Andrew. The 
♦latter, as he grew in years, prepossessed every one in his favour save his future 
bride. It is rarely that the human heart will bend its likings or dislikings to 
accord with the dictates of policy or ambition, and the hatred of Giovanna towards 
the youth whom she was expected to love and honour, but had not been permitted 
to choose, grew every day more violent. She and her younger sister Mary were 
endowed with all the charms of figure and face which poets love to paint as the 
birthright of the Avomen of the south ; but they had also the hot temperament, 
and longing after forbidden pleasure, which destroys domestic peace in the lands 
of sunny skies and starry nights, though comparatively unknown amongst the 



TROUBLES AT NAPUSS. 7^ 

denizens of less favoured climes. Giovanna's beauty won the attachment of the 
bishop of Cavaillon, a jolly priest and gallant gentleman ; called forth the 
melodious praises of Petrarch, the ardent, but dreaming and sentimental scholar, 
and secured for her the flattering notice of Pope Clement VI., who plumed himself 
almost as much upon being an excellent connoisseur in female beauty, as upon 
wearing the triple crown. All this might flatter the vanity of the young prin- 
cesses, but the bad example of their mother, Margaret of Valois, corrupted their 
morals ; and Filippa, a depraved woman, who, by her influence over Yoland, a 
half-brother of Giovanna, obtained the situation of governess in the royal family, 
finished the work of evil which Margai'et had begun. Giovanna's dislike to 
Andrew manifested itself clearly upon the death of the king, her father. Acting 
upon evil counsel, she declared, that though her marriage gave him a right to 
share her bed, she certainly would not permit him to share her throne, and 
therefore would not concede to him the title of king or allow his coronation. The 
Pope was the universal referee at that time in all disputes relating to crowns and 
sceptres, and Clement VI., who was residing at Avignon, was called u-pon to 
decide between the husband and wife. In this instance, at least, the successor of 
St. Peter would ten thousand times rather have waived the exercise of his pre- 
rogative. On the one side he feared the great power of Louis, the king of 
Hungary ; on the other, the loss of Giovanna's favour, to whose beauty his vows 
and her marriage did not by any means prevent hi.*^ paying court. 

In this dilemma he resolved upon sending Petrarch to Naples, to make dilio-ent 
inquiry into the cause of the quarrel. A worse emissary he could not have 
selected. Petrarch's disposition was amorous in the extreme, and he was conse- 
quently prepared to pardon all faults committed under the influence of the tender 
passion, and besides all this, was naturally prejudiced in favour of his old benefactor 
Robert, her father. Louis, hoping to save his brother's rights and Giovanna's 
reputation before matters came to an extremity, sent on his side his mother, Eliza- 
beth, a high-minded and amiable woman. She therefore set out for Naples, attended 
by a brilliant escort, but had no sooner arrived than she found it would be impossible 
that she could exercise any influence at such a court, where all the worst vices 
were covered over Avith a show of refinement which increased their allurements at 
the same time that it deepened their depravity, and where the frank and open 
manners of the Magyars were stigmatised as gross and barbarous. Nevertheless 
she endeavoured to bring about a reconciliation, which would in all probability 
have been lasting, if her eff'orts had not been frustrated by the harsh sternness of 
a Franciscan monk, 'Robert, Andrew's tutor, who placed himself in opposition to 
the sentimentalism of Petrarch. Robert governed the kingdom in Andrew's name 
with great vigour and inflexibility, but having no taste for poetry himself, looked 
upon all poets with profound contempt. He therefore received Petrarch with 
studied indifl"erence, and paid no attention to the Pope's instructions. The former, 
though he generally employed his pen in pouring out mournful com.plaints of the 



76 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

coldness of his mistress, flew to arms, and revenged himself by writing a satirical 
poem, in which he heaped bitter reproaches upon Robert; a work which 
he had already amply performed in a letter- to Cardinal Colonna, giving an 
account of his journey to Naples. " Religion, justice, and truth," said he, " are 
banished. I think I am at Memphis, or Babylon, or Mecca. Instead of a king so 
just, and so pious (Robert), a little monk, fat, rosy, barefooted, with a shorn head, 
and half covered with a dirty mantle, bent by hypocrisy more than by age, lost in 
debauchery while proud of his affected poverty, and still more of the real wealth 
he has amassed; this man holds the reins of the staggering empire. In vice 
and cruelty he rivals a Dionysius, or. an Agathocles, or a Phalaris ! "•'•' Elizabeth 
was still, at Naples, when the titular ; empress of Constantinople, Catharine of 
Valois, provided a lover for Giovanna in the person of her son Louis of Tarento, 
■who, in anticipating her husband in the enjoyment of the conjugal rights, rendered 
him still more odious in the eyes of his v^^ife. ; , 

The maternal affection of the Hungarian queen now made her alive to the 
dangers which threatened Andrew, and. she wished to take him back with her from 
an atmosphere so tainted with treachery and corruption. The Greek empress, 
however, , entreated her to change her determination; the chancellor of the 
kingdom. Count of Monte Scaglioso, an honest and powerful man, and devoted to 
the Hungarian cause, expressed his conviction, that if Andrew remained, matters 
might still be arranged ; and Giovanaa herself besought her, with tears in her 
eyes, not to deprive her of her husband. She therefore yielded to their soli- 
citations, and took her departure. ... 

At last the Magyar ambassadors purchased from Clement VI., with a sum of 
44,000 marks of silver, some concessions in favour of Andrew. The amount was 
not sufficient to obtain all. The Pope consented to confer upon him the title of 
king, and crown him as such, but without any stipulation as to .the succession after 
his death. 

The Hungarians rested satisfied with this, but did not perceive, till too late, 
that all their efforts would be rendered unavailing by the intrigues of the ladies 
of the Neapolitan court. Agijjres de Perigord, duchess of Durazzo, another 
member of the royal family, jealous of the success of the Empress Catharine on 
behalf of Louis of Tarento, determined to counterbalance the influence thus 
obtained. Supported by the Cardinal de Talleyrand, she obtained from the Pope 
permission for her son, Charles of Durazzo, to marry Mary, the younger sister of 
the queen. Prompted by Catharine, however, Giovanna refused her consent, and 
they therefore determined upon carrying off the princess in the night. In this 
there was a fresh insult offered to Andrew, as Mary had been previously afllianced 



* Campbell's "Life of Petrarch.," vol. i. p. 248. The tone of this description is no more 
exaggerated than that of Campbell's own account of the whole transaction, which betrays a 
manifest prejudice against the Hungarians. 



MURDER OF ANDREW. 



77 



to his brother Stephen ; and in case Giovatina died without issue, the succession 
remained to her sister. In this instance he again gave proof of his gentleness and 
humanity, or, as some may think, his feebleness and incapacity, by pardoning the 
ravisher. At last a new scandal precipitated the closing scene of this hideous 
drama. The queen's figure began to afford evidence, every day more unmistake- 
able, of her infidelity to her husband, and the insult and dishonour were rendered 
deeper by her own indifference to her disgrace. Some mentioned Bertrand 




LOUTS I. 



d'Artus, the son of the grand chamberlain, and the sworn enemy of Andrew, 
others Louis, duke of Tarento, as the cause of it ; but Andrew was too proud to 
exhibit any outward signs of the mortification he felt. Soon after, some courtiers 
made a banner, with the figures of a block and an axe displayed upon it, and 
paraded it at a tournament in Andrew's presence, to signify the determination of 
the court to get rid of him, since they could no longer delay his coronation. On 
the 18th of September, 1344, he accompanied the queen to a party of pleasure at 
a country house, near Aversa, and riding out in the country, they stopped to dine 



78 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

at the convent of St. Peter of Moreno, some distance from the town. In the 
evening a messenger came to the royal apartmetit to summon Andrew, as if for the 
purpose of delivering to him some important despatches. He had no sooner left 
the room than the door was closed behind him, and a hand placed on his mouth to 
stifle his cries. Andrew shook himself loose by a tremendous effort, and ran 
toward the hall for his arms ; but he found all the doors shut, and Giovanna lay 
quietly in her bed, paralysed by fear or anxiety. At length the noise aroused his 
attendant, who cried for help ; but Eertrand d'Artus, the favourite of the queen, 
again seized his victim, and urged the assassins to attack him. After a fierce 
struggle, they hung him from the balcony of the great hall, with a. rope Avhich the 
queen herself was said to have provided. The disfigured and bleeding body 
Avas thrown into the garden, and the monks, when aroused, had to search for it 
during the greater part of the bright summer night before they found it. 

When the news reached the town of Aversa, the tumult Avas great. The 
women rushed into the streets bewailing the murdered king, and the men went in 
arms to the convent, and forcing the gates, in blind fury slaughtered every one 
Avhom they met, Avithout inquiring as to his innocence or guilt. All, in the 
bitterness of their grief, thought only of avenging the murder, and forgot to bury 
the body, which lay for many days before it obtained the rites of sepulture. 

The queen, after the first flood of hypocritical tears, set out for Naples, 
and immediately abandoned herself to indxilgence in every sort of licentious 
pleasure. The birth of an infant son awakened the memory of her past delin- 
quencies, and filled the minds of the people with horror and disgust. Louis of 
Hungary instantly demanded an inquiry of the Pope, with a view to the discovery 
and punishment of the authors of this lamentable outrage. It accorded tieither 
Avith the interests nor the inclination, however, of the papal court to throAV any 
light upon the matter, as the chief offender Avas the near relative of his holiness. 
Cutting short the negotiations, Louis required the Cardinal de Talleyrand, and his 
nephew, the queen herself, Catharine of Valois and her tAvo sons, to be delivered 
up to him, that they might suffer capital punishment. Being anxious, howcA-er, to 
save his brother's honour, he consented that Charles Martel, Giovanna's illegitimate 
son, should be educated by Elizabeth at the Hungarian court, and that during his 
minority, his brother Stephen, duke of Sclavonia, should govern the kingdom of 
Naples. But he Avas resolved in any case to punish the queen, and deprive her 
of the crown, and for that purpose levied an army and marched upon Italy. 

This dispute has been rendered one of the most famous in modern history^ by 
the means AA'hich AVere noAV taken to decide between the contending parties. A 
man at this time sat at Rome in the chair of the ancient tribunes-, Avho united the 
austerity and the severe aiid inflexible justice of the ancient Brutus Avith the fire 
of the Gracchi, and the brilliant eloq^uence of Cicero. Raised from the body of 
the people, he was their idol ; and Avhen he banished from the gates of his native 
city the lawless nobles, the descendants of their barbarian conquerors, and re-esta- 



THE JUDGMENT OF RIENZI. 79 

blislied the reign of pure justice and equal rights, his felloAVS hailed him as their 
deliverer. He had humbled the power of the great — and they looked upon 
him Avith a jealous eye ; but the multitude clung to him as a father. He had 
become renowned for the largeness of his intellect, and the far-sighted justice 
of his decisions ; and more fortunate than Mazzini, he had gained the confidence 
of most of the princes of Europe. This plebeian saw crowned heads submit 
their disputes to his arbitration, and upon him Louis and Giovanna called to 
decide between them. Giovanna tried him with gold, but found him incor- 
ruptible, and then addressed herself to work upon his affections, flattering the 
vanity of his wife by rich presents, whilst she assured the tribune that she" 
sought only an impartial sentence. 

- At last the day came on which this great trial, wonderful for the demonstration 
which it affords of the might of moral power and the force of great traditions, was 
to take place. Taking his seat upon a throne beneath the mighty dome of the 
Capitol, with the tribunitial crown upon his head, and the silver ball, the ensign 
of power, in his hand, he summoned before him the advocates of the rival monarchs, 
and bid them plead their clients' cause. 

The Tribune heard but did not decide. 

He feared on the one hand the consequences tliat might result to himself, in 
case he declared innocent a woman whom the populace generally believed to be 
guilty of her liusband's murder; and on the other, the enmity of a powerful 
n'eighbour in case Tie condemned her. He had, however, more elevated views, 
•which he kept strictly secret. He postponed his judgment, on the ground that 
the affair was of too important a nature to be decided hastily ; asked for time to 
deliberate with the principal citizens, and iii the meanwhile ordered the various 
documents and memoranda connected with tlie case, to be deposited in his 
chancery. He knew well what a noise the affair would make abroad, and he 
feared the jealousy of the papal court at Avignon. He resolved, therefore, to 
write to the Pope, and therein represent himself as a mediator between the 
contending parties. "I have received," said he, "the ambassadors sent by 
Giovanna, and the envoys of the king of Htmgary, and I have sent back a 
solemn embassy to endeavour to restore peace between them." ■ In reality, how- 
ever, the project he had at heart was the dethronement of the queen of Naples, and 
the formation of a league between Louis of Bavaria, Louis of Hungary, and the 
Roman people, for' the purpose of wresting from the Holy See the disposal of the 
crown of the Two Sicilies, and vesting it in the Roman Chamber of Representa^ 
fives, which he had established."^' 

Louis could not brook the delaj^ and he consequently refused any longer to leave 
the matter in Rienzi's hands, but determined forthwith to right himself by force. 
Sending forward the main body of his army, under the command of Nicolas Hennci, 

» " Histoke de E-ienzi," par M. de Boispreux, pp. 165 et seq. 



80 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

a pious bisliop (according to the notions of the times) and a brave soldier, he fol- 
lowed himself at the head of one thousand men, as an avenging corps, in the 
midst of which floated a black banner, carrying a portrait of his murdered brother. 
Town after town fell before him ; the petty princes of the peninsula sent embassies 
to seek his alliance, and the Pope alone attempted to arrest his triumphant 
progress. A legate met him, and threatened him with the anathemas of the 
church, unless he consented to desist from hostilities, and make peace with the 
queen. Louis' reply was characteristic of the man and of the nation to which he 
belonged. " The Pope," said he, "has no right to place bounds to my vengeance. He 
promised to punish the murderers of my brother, and his blood still cries against 
them from the ground. The criminals still survive, and are sheltered and protected 
by the Holy See, while I, who have taken arms only for their chastisement, am 
threatened with excommunication. The holy father reserves his curses for 
innocence and his favours for crime. Let him excommunicate me. I make no 
objection. I fear not his enjpty thunders. There is a higher judge than he, who 
knows the justice of my cause, and will one day review the decisions of Popes." 

He continued his course, and the Neapolitans began speedily to flock to him. 
The queen was deserted on every side, even by her husband, Andrew's murderer, 
whom she married in less than a month after his death. She escaped in the night, 
and landed safely on the coast of Provence. 

Upon taking possession of Naples, Louis guaranteed to all the free enjoyment 
of their liberty and property, except those who had taken part in the assassination 
of his brother. This promise seems to have re-assured Charles de Diirazzo, Avho 
rested under the gravest suspicions. The Magyar head-quarters were then at 
Aversa, and thither the Neapolitan nobles flocked to pay homage to their new 
sovereign. Durazzo followed their example. This man was a strange compound 
of bravery and ambition, carelessness of his own interests, and great perseverance. 
He was constantly mixed up in low and vile intrigues, and was consequently 
looked upon with 'great suspicion by the nobles, although his conduct appeared 
less equivocal in the eyes of the people. He had drawn upon himself the hatred 
of the archbishop of Naples, who appeared before the Hungarian king as his 
principal accuser. 

A grand council of the Magyar barons was summoned by Louis to deliberate 
upon the guilt of the culprit and the punishment of his crime. The sentence of 
death was unanimously pronounced. According to the custom of the time, the 
king was seated at a solemn banquet in the midst of his lords, when the unfortu- 
nate Charles was called before him. 

" Duke," said the king, regarding him with a stern aspect, " your lot is cast — 
you die within an hour. But you must first listen to the recital of your crimes. 
You hindered the coronation of my brother by your machinations ; you ravished 
Mary, the sister of the queen, who was promised in marriage by her father, first to 
me and then to my brother Stephen. You have, it is true, pursued the assassins 



CONQUEST OF NAPLES. 81 

of Andrew, but only that you might further your own ambitious projects. You 
were the first to invite me to this country, and the first to desert my standard when 
I had arrived. You shall now expiate your guilt by an ignominous death." It 
was in vain that Charles begged and prayed for life on any terms ; the king 
spurned him from his feet in disgust. He was beheaded on the same balcony 
from which the unfortunate Andrew had been hanged. 

It would seem as if a curse has for centuries hiing over the kingdom of Naples. 
When Louis conquered it, it was as corrupt, as degraded, as void of honour, 
humanity", and good faith, as now, when the finest intellects in the kingdom are 
buried in dungeons thirty feet below the level of the Adriatic. He set to work 
immediately to introduce some sort of order into the hideous chaos, and afibrd. 
security to the unfortunate people who had been so long plundered by the 
nobles and the court. The task was difficult — but it was one worthy the am- 
bition of a great man. He protected personal liberty, private property, and the 
fruits of honest labour against the open violence of the robber, and the more silent, 
but no less dangerous attacks of fraud and chicane. " Activity, honour, justice, 
replaced sloth, jobbing, and corruption, assassination, and dissoluteness of manners, 
and the people began to revive."-'' 

Loiiis entertained a feeling of deep disgust at the low state of morality which 
he found prevailing amongst the mass of the people, and the total want of prin- 
ciple of the nobility. When, upon making his triumphant entry into the capital, 
the great lords presented him with a magnificent throne, he declined it with evident 
marks of contempt ; and when the orators appeared with their panegyrics, and 
the poets came to recite their complimentary odes, he refused to hear them. 

He had to steer clear of two evils. He had on one hand to avoid off'ending the 
pride of the nobles by too great severity, and, on the other hand, to see that the 
authors of a great crime should not escape Avith impunity. Under the stern 
severity of the Magyar rule, however, the Neapolitan barons soon began to regret 
the gay licentiousness of the old regime, and to long for its return. 

A deplorable calamity soon occurred, which hastened the outbreak of then- 
discontents, and enabled them to give form and consistency to their hatred of 
Hungarian domination. A terrible earthquake shook the whole of Italy, burying 
towns and villages by the shock, and close upon it followed a pestilence which 
spread, with greater or less degree of virulence, over the whole of Europe. 
Hungary escaped with little injury, but Naples was the very centre of the wide- 
spread desolation. Louis travelled through the whole kingdom, exposing himself 
to imminent personal danger, in the attempt to alleviate the suff'erings of the 
wretched inhabitants. His labour was, however, in vain ; and, after fortifying 
the garrisons and distributing troops through the country, at the earnest solicitation 
of his ministers, he returned to Hungary. No sooner had he disappeared than the 

* Mathaeus Villani, 1, i. c. 16. 



82 HISTORY OF HUNGAEY. 

nobles threw off tlie mask, and sent deputies to Avignon, where Giovanna had 
taken refuge, beseeching her to return with her husband, and resume possession of 
her throne. But she had no money ; and, in order to raise supplies, she sold the 
town of Avignon, and the territory attached to it, to the Pope for a sum of 80,000 
florins, and even pledged her jewels to fit out an expedition. She arrived at 
Naples, and was received into the town, although the Hungarian garrison occupied 
the castle, and Louis of Tarento, her husband, put himself at the head of the army. 
Charles Martel, Giovanna's son, being at this time dead, Louis wished to marry 
his brother Stephen to Mary, the widow of Charles de Durazzo, and place them on 
the throne ; but the Pope steadfastly refused his consent, and succeeded in 
.inducing the German levies to desert the Hungarian standard. This defection 
obliged Louis to suspend his operations for some time ; but in the spring of 1350 
he again appeared with large reinforcements, and carried everything before him. 
He was twice wounded at the sieges of two towns, but still persisted in exposing 
himself in the thick of every fray. At the siege of Melfi, he received a challenge 
to mortal combat from Louis of Tarento, to which he sarcastically replied, telling 
him that if they met face to face in a general engagement he should not decline 
the conflict. 

Marching upon Naples, it surrendered to him without striking a blow. Upon 
taking possession of the town, he informed the inhabitants that he would levy a 
contribution on their goods as a ptmishment for their treason. This was the 
signal of a general outbreak, and, after a murderous conflict in the street, the 
Magyars, harassed and worn out by the overwhelming numbers of their assailants, 
were compelled to retreat to the citadel. The Pope seized this opportunity of 
renewing his off'ers of peace on behalf of the queen, at the same time declaring 
his intention of delivering judgment upon the differences existing between the 
two parties. It was impossible to exculpate Giovanna from the charges alleged 
against her ; but at the same time Clement was by no m.eans willing to have a 
powerful king as his neighbour, instead of a beautiful woman. To end the matter, 
he forthwith formed a tribunal of his own creatures, before whom Giovanna was 
arraigned with a mockery of legal procedure : and, in accordance with the advice 
of her ecclesiastical counsellors, she declared that, instigated by diabolical 
witchcraft, by aJi excess of folly, of which she could not divine the cause, she had, 
against her will, ordered the murder of her husband, whereupon the Pope declared 
her innocent of the " witchcraft and its consequences !" The moment the 
judgment was pronounced, a letter signed " Lucifer, Prince of Darkness," and 
addressed to " His Holiness the Pope, his representative upon Earth," fell in the 
midst of the astonished consistory. In the epistle, his satanic majesty informed 
them of the satisfaction with which the accounts of the manifold vices, misdeeds, 
and injustice of the Pope and his cardinals were received by the damned spirits in 
the infernal regions. 

The absurdity of this judgment was apparent to every one ; but Louis, 



ACCESSION OF LOUIS TO THE THBONE OF POLAND. 83 

perceiving that the kingdom of Naples was as difficult to keep as it was easy to 
acquire, and being disgusted with the shameless immorality of the papal court, at 
once acquiesced in it. The queen sent him 300,000 florins to meet the expenses 
of the war ; but it was returned v/ith the cold reply, that he fought to avenge his 
brother, not to accumulate wealth. He immediately evacuated Naples, after 
having occupied it for six years. Such was the negative result of a conquest 
achieved by the expenditure of so much blood and treasure. 

New successes compensated Louis for the loss of Naples. He was shortly 
afterv^ards called by Casimir, the king of Poland, to his assistance against the 
Bohemians and the Russians. He thus became acquainted beforehand with the 
genius of the people over whom he was one day to be called to reign. Although 
the two nations had attained almost to the same stage of culture and civilisation, 
the straightforwardness, frankness, and magnanimity of the Magyars were more 
in accordance with the king's tastes and disposition, than the uneasy, restless spirit 
of the Poles. His partiality for the former was still further increased by the 
efforts made by the Polish nobles to impose ne^v restrictions upon him, in case he 
came to rule over them. They stipulated that he should be content with the 
revenues which accrued to the croAvn in the time of Vladislaus Loketek, and 
engage never to attempt to found a right upon the voluntary offerings with which 
any of his subjects might present him ; and, lastly, that he should never visit his 
new kingdom without the permission of the Diet, who Avould not, at the same 
time, bear any part of the expenses of his journey. These conditions well 
exemplify the jealous hauteur of this proud nobility ; but, in imposing them, they 
committed a fatal error. By prohibiting Louis' residence in his newly-acquired 
dominions, they taught him to look on them as a distant and dependent province, 
in whose welfare and prosperity he could feel only a secondary interest. He, 
therefore, yielded with indifference to their demand that, in case he or his son 
Stephen died without having male issue, they should possess, without interference, 
the right of choosing their own kings. From thai moment Poland occupied but 
little of Louis' attention. 

Passing over a successful war against the Yenetians, concerning the possession 
of Dalmatia, and a partially successful attempt to act as mediator in the contentions 
of the petty princes of Italy, we arrive at the death of Casimir, the last of the race 
of the Piasts, which had given so many great men and great kings to Poland. 
He was, in many respects, an able and efficient monarch ; and, though often faulty, 
he had that desire to act well which so frequently forms a redeeming trait in listless, 
decisionless characters. He possessed great personal bravery, and, amidst all his 
indulgence in the grosser vices, a tender and feeling heart. He did not die 
without leaving behind him some memorials of his zeal for the welfare of the 
country. Before his time, there were scarcely any fortified towns in Poland; but 
during his reign, towns, villages, and castles, built with elegance and solidity, 
arose upon every side. He had great tact in the discovery of merit, and, when 

II 2 



84 insrouv ov hvngaky. 

I'ouiuU lie novor failiHl io appiociatc ami vewavd it. llo (.-realod a tliirJ oslalo, 
comj)08tHl of the boiirgoiMsic, i>r iniiUUo I'lass ; aiul if his siuc'i.vssoi's had taken care 
to losior Ihi- m'w rhMuenI thus intvinhirod into thr i-onstitntion, Poland would 
havo made tar moiv rapid [Hogross*. lint even Casiniir himself did only half the 
work, or rather neutralized the ij;ood erteets of what he did do, by si^-njng- the fatal 
measure, at the Diet of AVis/li/.a, in l;>i7. whieh eonstitnted a powert'nl and idle 
oligarehy to ernsh tl\e niiddU" and lower classes. •'" 

llpon the death of Casimir. a depntation of Polisli nobles re]>aireil to \'isegrad, 
to recpiest l.onis to take possession oi' tlie throne, aeeording to the treaties already 
entered into, lie recelvoil them in state, surronndcd by the barons of his empire ; 
but heard their offer with seeming donbt and hesitation. *' You know not what 
you ask," said he to ihem ; " and yon," turning to his barons, ''know not what 
you advise. It is dilticult to waleh over two distinct flocks; and, for this reason, 
no bishop is allowed to preside over two dioceses. AVhen the Koman empire onlj' 
counted a few huts as its possessions, two kings were too many to govern it ; so, I 
feav, one king wo>dd be insntlirient io reign over two great empires."' 

At last, however, he yielded to their solicitations, and consented to go to Poland 
to be crowned. The ceremony took place at Cracow : and. after it was over, the 
chancelKn- presented him the comlllious laid down in the treaty, by which the 
succession was secured to him. He pledged himself to restore, at his own expense, 
all the countries wrested from Poland : to bestow no dignity or public office upon 
any foreigner: to make good to knights and men-at-arms all losses sustained by 
them in carrying on war out of the kingdom ; and, lastly, to impose no new tax 
upon the property oi' the church, or of the nobility. This sort of constitutional 
charter was accepted by the king of Hungary, loaa, and is considered the first of 
the " ]\u'ii Convmtd,^' or covenant between the nobles and the candidate they 
wished to propose; covenants exclusively formcil lor their own bcnetit. and to 
the detriment alike of king and peasantry. 

Louis felt, liowever, that he and the Polish aristocracy couhl never work toge- 
ther in harmony. They were too restless, proud, and discontented ever to submit 
quietly to the rule of any one : and they were too powerful to be coerced into 
subjection. He had scarcely arrived at Cracow, when liis unpopidarity com- 
menced. One of his first acts was a direct violation of his agreement, namely, 
the bestowal oi' two valuable liefs of the crown upon two strangers, who had no 
claim upon them, excein their relationship witli him : and he added fuel to the 
indignation which was roused on this score, by removing Casimir"s two daughters 
into Hungary, lest they should contract royal alliances. He committed the 
government to his mother, Kli/.abeth : but she, though herself a Pole, found 
herself unable to carry it on. After the occurrence of numerous scenes of violence, 
turbulence and anarchy, into the particnlars of which we cannot here enter, he 

* Hist, of rohmd, I.iuchur's Eiicyel., p. i^'2. 



Dmr;Ri5A.vci-;s ix polam). 



85 



convened a Polish Diet at Buda, in March, 1381, and invested Zavicza, bishop of 
Cracow, and two other noblemen, with the government of the kingdom. The 
Poles were filled with rago and consternation upon hearing of this measure. They 
now found themselves placed under the domination of a haughty and iiasciblo 
priest, instead of the gentle rule of Elizabeth, and Vladislaus, the viceroy, who 
succeeded her. The bishop, however, did not long continue to give them cause for 
complaint. Th-; hoary debauchee fell from u ladder, and broke his neck, as he 
was pursuing a young girl, who, to escape; from liis brutal violence', had taken 
refuge in a hay-loft. 




IIUNOAKIAN I-7.EBT IN THE FOUK'i EES'i II CENTURY. 



Constantly disappointed in his expectations with regard to Poland, the king of 
Hungary at length determined to abandon her finally, and leave her to her fate. 
lie assembled another Diet at 0-Zolyom ^Altsohlj, in 1-382, and presented to it 
his daughter Mary, the future queen, and licr betrothed lover, Sigismond, son of 
the emperor of Germany, Charles IV. He had given up the hope of any lasting 
union between the two countries, and he therefore wished to evidence his desire 
for the welfare of the Polish people, by offering them as their king the man whom, 
of all the princes of Europe, he deemed worthy of his daughter's hand. Jiut in 
doing this he severed the bond tliat seemed so likely to unite Poland and Hungary 



86 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

for ever. Each nation thenceforth pursued its own course, to meet at last as 
companions in misfortune, crushed under the same iron yoke. 

In the following year a great plague of locusts desolated the greater part of 
Hungary, utterly destroying the crops, and leaving but little sustenance for either 
man or beast, so that it was in no very satisfied spirit that the Hungarians received 
the news of the king's intention to commence hostilities with the Venetians, who 
had made encroachments upon the Hungarian territories on the Adriatic. He 
marched against them with 40,000 men, in conjunction with Leopold, duke of 
Austria, and Francesca Carrara, and most of the towns of Dalmatia speedily fell 
before his arms. Peace was at length restored by a division of the territory, in 
Avhich Louis had the lion's share. 

The Tartar tribes, who had not yet lost their taste for plunder, made new 
attempts upon the kingdom during this reign, and several times made invasions 
into Transylvania, Louis, at last, succeeded in overtaking them, and inflicted 
upon them so signal a defeat, that they fled to the shores of the Euxine. The 
Lithuanians, also, who were still idolaters, harassed their neighbours by a succes- 
sion of inroads, and in particular the province of Russia, which at this period was 
tributary to Hungary, carrying off" from time to time great quantities of booty, and 
multitudes of captives. They were at length completely subdued, either by force 
or persuasion, for the Hungarian monarch Avas an adept in the tise of both. 

During these conflicts the Hungarian fleet increased rapidly, and practice gave 
the Magyar sailors an amount of self-confidence and dexterity which could then be 
rarely found exCept amongst the Venetians. Their navy was at this period one of 
the finest in Europe. 

Louis died, without leaving any male issue, in 1382, after a reign of forty years, 
universally regretted by his subjects. The magnates and nobles, to show their 
admiration of his character and sorrow for his loss, wore mourning for three years 
after his de^h. His body was interred in the church of St. Stephen, at Alba, 
with great pomp and magnificence. • 

The Magyar historians love to dwell upon the glories of his reign, and above all 
upon the splendour of his palace of Visegrad, in which he fixed his residence 
during the greater part of his life. They tell, with pardonable pride, of its vast 
extent, which could afford ample accommodation for two kings and many minor 
princes, with all their suite ; of its 350 chambers, furnished in a style of 
dazzling splendour ; of its gardens stocked with the rarest exotics, and cooled by 
the rush of fiowing water ; of the soft and voluptuous music which every evening, 
from one of the highest towers, soothed or delighted the courtly guests, and, 
floating on the breeze, cheered the peasant as he " plodded his weary way " 
homcAvard ; of the neighbouring mountains, crowned with wood, and studded with 
pleasant villas or rustic churches ; of the pleasant and shady valleys that sloped 
away to the Danube's edge, and aff'orded calm and retirement to him who chose 
to escape for a season from the gaieties of the palace. 



INTERNAL ADMINISTKATION OF LOUIS THE GREAT. 87 

It is a subject of more importance to us to consider the changes or improvements 
Louis wrought in the Hungarian constitution. He had more respect for the 
rights of the people and nobles than his father, Charles Robert, because he was 
less wily, more straightforward in his dealings, and had a great dislike to the 
tricks of diplomacy. In a Diet, held at Buda in 1351, he confirmed the Bulla 
Aurea, and added twenty-five new articles. After the happy issue of his first 
campaign in Naples, he established perfect equality amongst the nobles, as an 
acknowledgment of their services. The distinction between the great seigneurs 
and the simple nobles was thus effaced, and the name harones, proceres, and noliles 
were applied equally to all. At the Diet of Rakos, under one of the last kings of 
the race of Arpad, the peasants and the johbagy (doariestic servants) obtained the 
right of leaving their lords, and taking up their residence on the estates of another. 
This was one step towards their emancipation, and it possesses greater weight from 
the circumstance, that, in all other countries of Europe at this date, the serfs were 
inseparable from the soil on which they Avere born. Louis gave full force to this 
law, and those who fought bravely under his banners not only became free, but in 
every respect equal to the ancient nobles. The authority and duty of the palatine, 
of the judge of the kingdom, of the treasurer, underwent no alteration of import- 
ance. The palatine. Count de Trencin, already claimed the right of governing the 
kingdom, whenever the throne became vacant— just as the Lord Mayor of London 
does under similar circumstances in England. Charles Robert struck an injurious 
blow at the independence of the counties by placing a number of them in groups 
under one count, instead of each under its own. These supreme counts took rank 
among the first barons of the empire, and gave place only to the loayioodes or bans. 
These great nobles received their emoluments, as did all other officials, in kind, 
and had besides the right of purchasing a certain quantity of salt. Each county, 
divided into four districts, had a certain number of puisne or deputy judges, pre- 
sided over by a superior judge {feobiro). Their assessors, a sort of jijry composed 
of nobles, took part in the deliberations, and returned their verdict upon the case. 
These were elected by the nobles of the district, and none were qualified who had 
not real property within the jurisdiction of the court. The king himself named 
the superior courts, and sometimes even the viscounts, who opened the 
assemblies, — under Charles Robert Avith the royal permission, and under Louis, 
when the public safety required it. In these were discussed the legislative and 
legal afi'airs of the district, matters of police, and other subjects of local interest, 
not Avithin the province of the general diet. 

The military force of Hungary at first consisted, as we have already seen, 
entirely of the barons and their immediate followers, who ranged themselves under 
the banner of the king : and afterwards of the sixty-two bands furnished by the 
same number of counties or military districts, Avho Avere compelled by laAv to 
defend the country at their own expense. The Magyars, hoAvever bravely they 
might fight at home, were never disposed to carry the war beyond their oAvn 



83 HISTORY OF HUNGAKY. 

frontiers, even when the king bore the cost ; and this was doubtless the cause of 
the many invasions to which Hungary has been exposed. The old military organi- 
sation beo-an, however, in course of time, to fall into abeyance, and Charles 
Robert endeavoured to introduce a number of useful reforms. He ordained that 
the inhabitants living in the neighbourhood of the citadels, and every landed pro- 
prietor who was not a noble, should furnish his contingent to the general arma- 
ment. This plan did not, however, answer his expectations, and a sort of militia 
was therefore created, called banderies (from the monkish Latin, banderium), upon 
the plan of the Italian bands or mercenary troops. This was maintained at the 
expense of the prelates and magnates, who, in their fondness for display, often 




CASTLE OF OZOLYOM. 



appeared in the field at the head of a greater number of levies than they were 
called upon to furnish. Charles Robert permitted them to keep their respective 
troops distinct, and to bring them into battle under their OAvn orders and their own 
banner. 

Besides these, there, were the Szeklers, who fought as irregular troops, under no 
orders, where and in what manner pleased them. These were divided into two 
corps, archers and slingers. The revenues of the crown lands, it may readily be 
imagined, were by no means equal to the outlay of princes so enterprising as those 
of the house of Anjou. They were accustomed to a more lavish and less scrupu- 
lous system of finance than they found prevailing in Hungary, and in order 
to meet the expenses of their long wars, Ihey placed heavy imposts upon all 



INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION OF LOUIS THE GREAT. 



$9' 



persons not ennobled. Thus, for every load of hay or of straw that entered a 
farmer's gate, he was obliged to pay a tax of eighteen deniers, and hence the name 
porta was given to it. The ninth part of the produce of their labour and industry 
was a tax which pressed with tremendous weight upon the poorer classes, and 
acted with a very injurious influence upon the commerce and agriculture of the 
country. This was not abolished till 1848. The landed property of the nobles 
could never be sold or aliened in any way, but was strictly entailed upon the male 
line, upon failure of which it reverted to the crown. It was, therefore, almost 




SZEKLERS. 



impossible for any one, who had not a claim to nobility, to become possessor of 
any land, except as a tenant farmer. 

The administration of justice was generally pure, and the forms of procedure 
simple and direct. The ordeal by fire or boiling water fell into disuse under Bela 
III. and Andrew IV., and was finally abolished by Lucas Banfi. These jDrinces 
also introduced advocates into the courts, appointed mayors for the villages, and 
magistrates for the government of the towns. The nobles had tribunals sitting in 
every county for the trial of those of their own order. The court of the palatine, 



90 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

the tribunal of final resort in all cases, changed the place in which its sittings 
were held four times in every year, for the convenience of those residing in the 
more remote parts of the kingdom. All legal proceedings took place publicly in 
open court. 

The labours of the strangers who were introduced to fill the place of those 
massacred by the Moguls, gave a prodigious impulse to the commerce and industry 
of the nation. The vines of Tokay, the juice of which the Hungarians assert to 
have been the nectar of the gods of antiquity, and which not only ministered to 
the delicate taste of the epicures of the day, but crowned the splendid feasts of the 
Magyar monarchs, owed their origin to an Italian colony placed at Olaszi. The 
immense wealth of the great lords, the splendour of their feasts and entertain- 
ments, and the gorgeous magnificence of their dress and equipages, Avere not 
without their effect upon trade, whatever might be their ultimate influence upon 
the manners of the people. In the midst of this manufacturing and commercial 
prosperity, the arts and sciences, and polite literature, were not forgotten. Many 
of the Hungarians repaired, to complete their education, to the universities of 
Paris and Bologna; then famed for the learning and ability of their professors. 
An academy, known as the Siudiuni Generale, was founded at Vesprim during the 
thirteenth century. Ladislaus IV. bestowed upon it an extensive library, and 
distinguished professors gave instruction in theology, jurisprudence, and belles 
lettres. But as literature was at that time peculiarly the province of the clergy, 
the national language was, for a considerable period unhonoured by the notice of 
the learned. Though Louis the Great spoke the Magyar with ease and fluency, as 
his mother tongue, still Latin continued to be the language of the refined and the 
noble. Amongst the learned men of the earlier part of Hungarian history, the 
names of Rogerius, archbishop of Spalatro ; of Calanus, the historian, bishop of 
the Five Churches ; Simon Keza, the chronicler ; and the German astronomer 
Klingsohr, are mentioned with honour. In 1367, an academy was established in 
the town of Pecs, and in a short time attained to such a height of celebrity, that 
4,000 students are said to have yearly filled its halls. Michas Madius, the 
Dalmatian chronicler, John Kukeolleo, the secretary of the king, and many others, 
of equal note, owed the eminence to which they afterwards attained, to the 
instruction they received here. 

Following up the course upon which St. Stephen entered, the dynasty of Arpad, 
at all times, displayed the utmost zeal for the honour of religion ; and as Catho- 
licism was the only form under which it was then known in Europe, the popes 
soon obtained immense influence in Hungary. They established a crowd of 
religious orders, and as the clergy entirely monopolised the teaching of the young, 
they secured an ascendancy and an amount of wealth, which remains almost 
unimpaired to the present day. After the conversion to Christianity, there was 
but one archbishop and six bishops in the whole kingdom. When Louis the 
Great died, there were thirty archbishops and eight hundred bishops. 



CHAP TEE VIII. 

MAKIA AND SIGISMOND. IHE TX7RKS. 

1382—1439. 

While Louis the Great was in the zenith of his splendour, the storm was brewing 
Avhich was to put the chivah'y of Europe on its mettle, and involve her frontier 
nations in the most serious and momentous contest of modem times. Amongst 
the tribes which composed the army of Gellaleddin, the sultan of Persia, in his able 
defence of his kingdom against the desolating inroads of Zengis Khan, was the 
small obscure clan which gave origin to the Turks, which had formerly dwelt 
near the southern banks of the Oxus, in the plains of Mohun and Neza. After 
the defeat and death of Gellaleddin, they entered the service of Aladin, sultan of 
Iconium; and in subjection to his sway, and under the rule of one of their own 
chiefs, Orthogrul, they formed a camp of four hundred families or tents at Surgut, 
on the banks of the Sangar, Orthogrul was the father of the caliph Othman, 
under whom the Turks first assumed an independent position, and began to 
commit ravages ujjon their own account, by making descents upon the Greek 
empire, through the passes of Mount Olympus, which the weakness of the empe- 
rors had left without protection. The first of these inroads was made on the 27th 
of July, 1299, and Avas the commencement of a series of attacks under which the 
imperial city itself was at last destined to fall. Instead of retreating to the hills, 
with his booty and captives, whenever he succeeded in taking a town or castle, he 
held it and fortified it, and endeavoured to wean his followers from the roving, 
pastoral life which they had hitherto followed, and attach them to the arts and 
luxuries of civilization. 

Under the domination of his son Orchan, the Turks increased in power and 
ambition, fixed their head-quarters in the the city of Prusa, which they had taken, 
built in it a mosque and college, struck new coins, and by the fame . of the pro- 
fessors whom Orchan endowed, attracted crowds of students from all parts of 
Asia, The office of vizier was established, and bestowed upon Aladin, Orchan's 
brother. A regular body of infantry was enrolled and trained, and instead of 
the mutinous peasants who followed the standard of Othman in loose and undici- 
piined squadrons, a powerful and well-organized army was formed of the Christian 
captives, who, taken in their youth, were instructed in the principles of the Moslem 
faith, and, with the usual zeal of proselytes, proved {hemselves its most ardent 
and enthusiastic propagators and defenders. The Turkish power was in this 



92 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

position when its aid was invoked by one of the parties in a civil war which was 
at that time desolating Greece. The ruin of the empire was from that moment 
sealed ; and soon after we find that their but too efficient allies had wrested from 
the feeble hands of the emperor, without open violence, but by mere occupation, 
some of the most valuable portions of his dominions. Aninrath, the successor of 
Orchan, subdued the whole province of Thrace or Romania, from the Hellespont 
to Mount Haemus, and chose Adrianople for the seat of his government and 
religion in Europe. The Greeks were in despair, and thought the hour of their 
downfal had at last come ; but it was still delayed by the pride or generosity of 
the sultan. The emperor John Palyeologus and his four sons had, hoAvever, to 
undergo the terrible humiliation of following the march of the conqueror, and 
witnessing the power of his arms in his expeditions against the Bulgarians, Ser- 
vians, Bosnians, and Albanians. It Avas out of the captives that were taken from 
these hardy and courageous tribes that the formidable corps of janizaries, which 
long was both the defence and terror of the Turkish empire, was first formed. 
The youngest and most beautiful of the prisoners were selected, educated in reli- 
gion and arms, and then consecrated by a celebrated dervish. He stood in front 
of their ranks, and stretched the sleeve of his gown over the head of the foremost 
soldier and delivered his blessing in these words : " Let them be called Janizaries 
( Yengi Cheii, or new soldiers) ; may their countenance be ever bright! their hand ever 
victorious ! their sword keen ! May their spear always hang over the heads of their 
enemies ! and Avheresoever they go, may they return with a Avhite face !"•'•* When 
first embodied, the new troops fought against their countrymen with determined 
valour and fidelity ; and, at length, in the bloody battle of Cossova, the Sclavonian 
tribes were utterly routed, and their league destroyed. Amurath was walking 
across the field, in company with his vizier, Avhen a Servian soldier, starting up 
from amongst the crowd of the slain, mortally Avounded him in the belly. 

He was succeeded in 1389 by Bajazet, sm-named Ilderim, or the lightning, Avho, 
by his fiery impetuosity, spread the terror of the Turkish arms far and Avide 
through eastern Europe. He reduced the northern provinces of Anatolia to 
subjection, conquered Iconium, imposed a regular fornr of servitude upon the 
Servians and Bulgarians, and then crossed the Danube to seek ncAV enemies in 
Moldavia. 

The Greek emperoi's, surrounded on every side by this terrible foe, had sought 
the aid of Louis the Great, Avho promised to march to his assistance, in case he 
Avere joined by the other European sovereigns. But the fervour of Christian 
hatred for infidels had already cooled. The age of chivalry Avas gone. The 
pope refused to jDreach a crusade in favour of obstinate schismatics, AAdio 



* Gibbon, vol xi., p. 432. I« latter years the discipline of the Janizaries became relaxed, 
and their insolence and turbulence made them the terror of their soA^ereign. They AA'ere all 
massacred in 1826, by the late Sultan Mahmoud. 



MURDER OF CHARLES THE LITTLE. 93 

scouted his pretensions to spiritual supremacy over the Christian church, and 
the eastern empire was left to its fate. Louis -does not appear to have had an 
adequate idea of the danger to be apprehended from the Ottomans, and at all 
events his attention was too much engrossed by the affairs of Italy, to allow of his 
taking proper measures for the defence of his kingdom. 

His successor had to bear the brunt of the contest. He left his kingdom to his 
daughter Mary, to whom the Poles swore allegiance, but speedily threw it off, and 
elevated Hedwig, a grand daughter of Casimir, to the throne. The Hungarians, 
though hitherto, owing perhaps to the military character of the people, a female 
ruler was a thing unknown in their histor* saluted Mary queen out of respect for 
her father ; but, as if to mark the exceptional character of the arrangement, they 
insisted that she should assume the title of king, and affix to all public docimienls 
the signature Maria Hex. 

She had been betrothed by her father to Sigismond, of Brandenburgh, king of 
Bohemia, who was still very young, and of course incapable of holding the reins of 
government in conjunction with her. Elizabeth, the young queen's mother 
consequently assumed the administration of the affairs of the kino-dom, but was 
wholly under the influence of Gasa, the palatine, a prudent and faithful man, but 
ambitious and plotting. His advice led to the adoption of several measures 
militating severely against the nobles, and some portion of the obloquy which this 
drew down upon him, of course, reached the queen and her mother also. A 
conspiracy was at last formed for the modification or even total change of the 
government, which was joined by many persons of high rank, and they decided 
upon offering the crown to Charles the Little, king of Naples, son of the unfortu- 
nate i^ndrew, and grandson of Louis. This prince, acting without advice upon the 
dictates of his own ambition, and without heeding the salutary counsels of his 
wife, agreed to their proposals, and having put the affairs of his own kingdom in 
order, repaired to Hungary. The conspirators immediately crowned him king, but 
the coldness of the populace, who beheld the ceremony, was an omen of what was 
to follow. Mary and her mother were at first seized with despair, on hearing of 
the success of their rival, but on recovering from their surprise, the first moments 
of calmness were spent in planning a heinous crime. Amongst the most zealous 
of their adherents was a brave but unscrupulous noble, named Forgatz, and it was 
determined in a council, at which the palatine Gasa was present, to commit to 
him the task of assassinating Charles, as the readiest way of putting a stop to his 
pretensions. When the necessary arrangements had been made, and the day 
fixed, Elizabeth and the palatine, accompanied by Forgatz, repaired to the palace, 
the former under pretence of showing him some letters she had received from 
Sigismond, the latter of requesting a safe conduct, to enable him to attend at his 
daughter's marriage, which was to take place at a distance of some leagues. 
Charles was walking up and down the room, with the conspirators on either side 
of him, when, at a signal from Gasa, Forgatz drew his sword, and split the king's 



94 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

skull to the very teeth. The doors were at the same time thrown open, and the 
partisans of Mary rushed in and took possession of the castle, drove out Charles's 
attendants, who were for the most part Italians, and put a garrison in the place, 
and then rushing through the streets of Buda in arms, called upon the people to 
declare for Mary. The populace, instead of manifesting any indignation at the 
horrid crime which had just been committed, cut the rest of the Italians to pieces, 
and hailed Mary queen, with loud acclamations. 

But the perpetrators of the murder did not long enjoy in quiet the fruits of it. 
AVithin a short time after Charles's ass^lkiation, they determined to pay a visit to 
the provinces of Lower Hungary, and for this purpose Mary and her mother, 
accompanied by Gasa and Forgatz, and attended by a slender escort, set out for 
Croatia. John Horvat, the ban, a zealous adherent of the late king, no sooner 
heard of their arrival in his government, than he hastily collected a body of 
troops, and furiously attacked the royal party. Forgatz and Gasa ably supported 
their reputation for courage, and defended themselves to the last extremity, till, 
overpowered by numbers, they were slaughtered before the queen's eyes. Mary 
and Elizabeth were dragged from their carriage by the hair, and brought before 
the ban. Elizabeth dropped on her knees at his feet, and implored him, for the 
sake of her departed husband, from whom he had received so many favours, to 
spare her life and set her at liberty. But neither her tears nor her prayers had 
the slightest effect upon Horvat. He ordered her to be drowned in the night, 
and her daughter to be shut up in a castle. •'- 

Sigismond, upon hearing of the fate of his mother-in-law, and the imprisonment 
of his bride, marched with a large army into Hungary, and called upon the ban to 
set the captive at liberty. Horvat, whether moved by fear or pity, did not hesitate 
to comply with his request ; and having exacted from Mary a solemn oath not to 
take vengeance upon him or his for the. injuries she had sustained, sent her with 
a large escort to Buda, where Sigismond received her in the midst of great 
rejoicings. Their delight on meeting once more was great in the extreme ; but we 
grieve to add that their nuptials were stained by Mary's perfidy. Notwithstanding 
her oath, she caused Sigismond to put Horvat to a barbarous and cruel death. He 
was seized and placed in a cart naked, with his hands tied behind his back, and 
in this way carried through all the towns and villages in the neighbourhood, the 
executioners all the while searing his body with red-hot tongs ; and at last he was 
cut into four quarters, one of which was placed over each gate of the city. 

Sigismond and Mary now ascended the throne as joint sovereigns (1386). The 
first year of their reign was disturbed by a revolt of the Wallacks, who, indig- 
nant at seeing a woman wearing the crown, rose in insurrection. Sigismond 
marched against them, and speedily subdued them ; but no sooner had he returne 
to the capital, than they again took up arms, and this time invited the Turks to 

* Bonfinms, lib. i., decad. 3, p. 393. 



BATTLE OF NECOPOLIS. 95 

their aid, who eagerly complied with their request. The king again took the field, 
and coming up with the allied armies, the Hungarian cavalry, in complete armour-, 
charged with such fury, that the Turks, unable to stand the onset, broke and fled, 
and vast numbers were cut down in the pursuit. Emboldened by his success, 
Sigismond proceeded to lay siege to Necopolis, a town on the Ister, garrisoned 
partly by Turks and partly by Hungarians. In the meantime Mary died childless, 
and her sister, Hedwig, had married Ladislaus, king of Poland, the latter deter- 
mined to assert his claims to the Hungarian throne, and was proceeding to do so, 
had not the archbishop of Strigonia set his face against it, and obliged Ladislaus 
to defer his enterprise to a more favourable season. At home the eagerness of 
Sigismond to avenge himself upon those who, in Mary's reign, or in his own, 
had seemed opposed to him, caused new troubles. He caused thirty-two of the 
principal nobles of the Neapolitan party to be executed, and amongst them was 
Stephen Conthy, who, as well as the others, disdained to apply for mercy. This 
outrageous severity produced a strong feeling of hostility in the minds of the 
magnates, which, however, did not show itself openly until after the disastrous 
battle of Necopolis. 

While he was besieging this town, great numbers of foreign soldiers, attracted 
by the importance of the struggle, repaired to his standard, French, Germans, and 
Bohemians. Bajazet advanced at the head of a large army to raise the siege, and 
offered battle to the Hungarians imder the city walls. The French auxiliaries 
besought Sigismond to yield to them the post of honour, and allow them to 
combat in the front rank of the Christian forces. Their request was granted, but 
before the Hungarian army had been drawn up in array, the French, excited by 
seeing the Turks coolly awaiting the conflict, issued from their quarters, and rode 
full gallop against the enemy. Upon approaching their ranks, they dismounted 
and advanced on foot. Their horses being turned loose, galloped wildly back to 
the camp, where their arrival caused the utm.ost confusion, from a belief that their 
riders had fallen, and that the Turks were advancing flushed with victory, and a 
panic seizing upon the Hungarians, they fled precipitately. The unfortunate 
French, surrounded on all sides, fought bravely against overwhelming odds for 
some time, and supported their courage by the hope of succour. But the succour 
never came, and they were cut ofl" to a man. The Turks then pursued the 
Hungarians for many miles, slaughtering immense numbers, and returned, laden 
with booty, and carrying with them a great number of captives. On this disastrous 
day, twenty thousand Hungarians were left dead on the field, or in the pursuit ; 
and Sigismond escaped with difficulty in a small boat across the Danube to 
Constantinople, and only reached his kingdom after a long absence and a still 
longer circuit. The count de Nevers, and seventy-four of the French lords of the 
highest rank, were reserved for ransom, and the remainder of the prisoners, on 
refusing to change their creed, were beheaded in the conqueror's presence. The 
survivors were for a long time carried in triumph from one part of the Turkish 



96 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

territory to the other, and at last were released upon the payment of an enormous 
ransom. 

In the pride of victory, Bajazet threatened to besiege Buda and subdue 
Germany and Italy, and declared that he would feed his horse with a bushel of 
oats upon the altar of St. Peter's. His progress was stayed, however, by a severe 
attack of gout. During Sigismond's absence, the terrible catastrophe which had 
befallen the kingdom gave the malcontents an opportunity of carrying their 
designs into execution, by the formation of another plot, the elevation of Ladislaus, 
king of Naples, and son of the unfortunate Charles the Little, to the Hungarian 
throne. Charles, however, had too vivid a recollection of his father's fate to be 
seduced into compliance, and Sigismond was allowed to enter his kingdom in 
peace. In a very short time a considerable number of the magnates, with the two 
sons of Gara at their head, went to the palace, as if for the purpose of paying their 
respects, and seized the king's person, loaded him with chains, and shut him up 
in the castle of Szicklos. Ladislaus now was once more invited to take possession. 
of the kingdom, but his fears overcame his ambition, and he paused at the 
frontiers of Dalmatia. In the meantime, the widow of Gara, touched by 
the king's misfortunes, persuaded her sons, into whose custody he had been 
committed, to connive at his escape. He instantly betook himself to Bohemia, 
raised there a large army, at the head of which he re-entered Hungary, took 
possession of the kingdom, obliged Ladislaus to desist from his pretensions, 
and, by an unusually judicious mixture of severity and conciliation, restored order 
and tranquillity. 

Having become in succession king of Bohemia and emperor of Germany, his 
new dignity gave him an opportunity of moving from place to place, gratifying his 
taste by weaving intricate webs of diplomacy. The rise of the sect known as the 
Hussites caused great troubles in his Bohemian dominions, and proved the cause 
of casting a stain upon his memory, and upon the church which he served, which 
no apology can ever eiFace. When the celebrated Coiuicil of Constance, for the 
regulation of ecclesiastical affairs, summoned before them John Huss and Jerome 
of Prague, the two celebrated reformers,' whose preaching had inflicted such 
grievous wounds upon Catholicism, they refused to appear, unless they received 
some guarantee that would insure their personal safety, Sigismond granted them a 
safe conduct, signed by his own hand ; but upon their arrival, joined in sentencing 
them to be burnt alive. This odious act of perfidy entailed upon Germany many 
a year of suffering and disaster. 

In the meantime, Naples and Venice seized upon various strongholds upon the 
Adriatic, without any attempt at resistance u]3on the part of Sigismond ; and it was 
only at the pressing instance of Nicholas Szentpole, that he at length made 
preparations to avenge the defeat sustained by his army at Necopolis. The Avar 
was commenced by the taking of Bosnia by the Hungarian general, Peterfi, who 
pushed on as far as Nissa, where the grand vizier occupied a strong position, with 



BATTLE OF NISSA. 



97 




JOHN I-IUNYADI. 



98 HISTORY OF HUNGAEY. 

an army of 24,000 men. The battle was fought on the fourteenth of October, 
1419, and ended in the total defeat of the Turks. 

It was in this battle that John Hollos, the adopted son of Butho, a Wallack 
hoyarcl, or nobleman, first made himself conspicuous by his valour. He had served 
in succession under the banners of Francis Csanadi, and the bishop of Zagrab ; and 
in this battle, where he commanded a troop, his daring attracted the notice of the 
king, who bestowed upon him the domain of Hunyad, in which he had been 
brought up. There is a great deal of uncertainty about the origin of this illus- 
trious man ; and even in the accounts of those national historians, who ought to 
have found little difficulty in accuracy, there is a strange mixture of statements 
that are probably true, with those that are certainly fictitious. We are told that 
his father was a Wallack, and this we can readily believe; but when it is 
added that his appellative of Corvinus, derived from the Latinized name of the 
village in which he was born, joined with the fact that his father was possibly 
descended from one of the Roman colonists of the province of Dacia, renders it 
probable that he Avas a scion of the famous Roman family on whom chance 
had conferred the same epithet ; and that from the mere circumstance of his 
mother being a Greek, it was likely that the blood of the Csesars ran in his veins, 
we cannot help smiling at the absurdities that hero-worship will induce men to 
believe and to publish. His valour and wisdom made in his day so powerful 
an impression upon the minds of the Hungarians, that in a country where birth 
confers so many great advantages, popular tradition could not do less than make 
him the son of a king. The story of his origin, as the peasantry tell it, is worth 
notice for its naivete, and in the absence of clear and decided testimony against it, 
it would hardly become us to impugn its truth. 

Sigismond, after the death of his first wife, had married Barbara de Cilly, a 
perverse and cunning woman, who poisoned her husband's existence, and disgraced 
her sex by her gross licentiousness. He, therefore, very soon began to' abandon 
her society for that of other females. In 1392, he led his army into Wallachia, 
and when encamped on the banks of the Sztrigy, he met, in one of his evening 
walks, a girl named Elizabeth Morsiani, the daughter of a neighbouring boyard, 
and was captivated by her beauty. The admiration and attention of the king- 
dazzled the simple maiden, and she yielded her honour without even a coy refusal. 
Sigismond then passed on to the scene of the war, where, also, he was equally 
successful, and upon his return, the beautiful Morsiani again presented herself at 
his tent, and asked what reward he would bestow upon her for presenting him 
with a child. " I will load the child with honours," he replied, delighted with 
the result of his amour ; and handing her a gold ring, told her to come to the 
palace, and the ring should remind him of his promise. Some months after his 
departure, Elizabeth married a boyard named Volk Butho, who took her with him 
into Wallachia, where she soon after gave birth to a son, whom she named John. 
When Sigismond again arrived in the neighbourhood, and she repaired to the camp, 
and presented him with the child and the ring. He received her graciously, and 



DEATH OF SIGTSMOND AND ACCESSION OF AI.BERT. 99 

renewed his promises of favour and protection, and told her to come to Buda. 
Shortly afterwards her hiisband died, and; she Avas making preparations for the 
journey, when a crow snatched the ring from her son's hand, and flew with it to a 
neighbouring tree, whereupon her brother, rmniing to her assistance, shot the 
bird, and restored the bijou. She appeared before the king in his palace at Buda, 
and he loaded her with favours. When John had grown up, he bestowed upon 
him the domain of Hunyad, and sixty villages, and gave him as his coat-of-arms, 
a cro^w carrying a ring in its bill, and the young man ever after bore the name of 
his estate, Hunyadi Janos, or John of Hunyad. 

At the battle of Sendrecz, Sigismond was again successful, and again Hunyadi 
made the Turks feel the weight of his prowess. The king was now well stricken 
in years, and in 1437 he died, and was buried in the cathedral of Great Varadin, 
leaving the three crowns of which he was in possession at his death to his 
daughter Elizabeth and her husband, Albert, duke of Austria. -He possessed 
many great virtues, and in reviewing his faults we must take into account the 
factions, intrigues, and invasions against which he had to contend. He was a 
man of commanding appearance, profuse in hospitality, and, when not driven into 
cruelty by real or fancied danger, he Avas humane and merciful ; and, on the 
Avhole, was worthy of a happier reign. 

He left a daughter, Elizabeth, Avho had married Albert, archduke of Austria ; 
and by Sigismond's express desire, the latter succeeded him in the dignities he 
had himself held— as emperor of Germany, king of Bohemia and of Hungary. 
He ascended the throne of the latter kingdom in 1438, but his reign was short. 
The Hungarians did not much relish the government of their country by a foreign 
sovereign, and the mixture Avhich then began to take place between them and the 
Germans was the cause of continued quarrels and discontent. Albert introduced 
a practice of appointing a Hungarian or a Germari, alternately each year, to 
the governorship of Buda. The Germans, pluming themselves on the fact that 
the king Avas a man of their nation, endeavoured, by a series of intrigues, to secure 
this office entirely to themselves. Amongst the Hungarians none Avere more 
opposed to their machinations than a magnate named John Euthues, a man of very 
high spirit, Avho had distinguished himself on several occasions by his impetuous 
resentment of slights throAvn upon the Hungarians. The Germans Avere, there- 
fore, anxious, above all things, to procure his removal. After vainly trying 
several expedients, they at last entered his house by force, manacled him, and, 
after immuring him. in a dungeon, inflicted upon him excruciating tortures ; and, 
at length, having cut his throat, threAV his body into the Danube. 

Within a Aveek afterAvards, the body rose to the surface, and, drifting ashore, 
Avas speedily recognised, though greatly mutilated and pierced Avith numerous 
Avounds. A great concourse of nobles, from various parts of the country, Avas at 
this time assembled in Buda, for the purpose of paying their respects to the ncAV 
king ; and the rumour haAdng gone abroad that Euthues had been murdered by 
the Germans, the Avhole Hungarian popxilation of the city sallied out, SAVord in 



\t\^r )U\^ 



/v^ wj 



loa 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 




hand, and slaughtered, -without disciimination of age or sex, not the Germans 
only, but all foreigners within the walls, and plundered and w^recked their 
houses. 



TUEKISH INVASION. 



101 



The Turks, immediately upon hearing of the death of Sigismond, prepared for 
a new inroad ; and George, prince of Servia, believing himself unable to make 
head against the infidels single-handed, took refuge in Hungary, with the bishops 
and many of the nobility, leaving his son to hold Sendrecz against the invaders. 




When the Hungarians learnt that their frontier was thus laid open to the enemy, 
messengers were sent off in great haste to Albert, who was then in Poland, im- 
ploring him to march to the defence of the kingdom. On arriving at Buda, he 



102 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

was informer! of tlic death of George Palocs, one of tlie highest dignitaries of the 
state, to whose keeping the regalia had been committed. After taking possession 
of them, he handed, them to his wife Elizabeth, who, in her turn, gave them to an. 
old woman, and then returned to Buda from Strigonia, where the treasure was 
kept. The king then advanced, without any auxiliaries, against the Turks, and 
encamped between the Danube and the Teyss. In the meantime, however, Avhile 
waiting for reinforcements, Sendrecz was taken by_]assault, and the inhabitants put 
to the sword. Stephen and Gregory, the prince's sons, were taken prisoners, and 
some time afterwards, on Amurath's hearing that they kept up a correspondence 
with their father, they were blinded by being compelled to endure the glare of 
red-hot plates of brass, although their sister had been for some time his principal 
wife."^' Great consternation prevailed amongst the Hungarians upon the receipt 
of this intelligence, and it was increased by the breaking out of dysentery in the 
Christian army, owing to the bad quality of the water they were obliged to drink, 
the springs having been dried up by the extreme heat of the weather. Large 
numbers were thus carried off ; but the survivors were in some measure relieved 
from their fears by hearing that the Turks had retreated, leaving merely a garrison 
in the Sendrecz. Albert was preparing to return to Buda, when he found him- 
self stricken with the prevailing epidemic, and wishing to end his days in his 
native country, he set out for Vienna, but on arriving at Nesmel he died, in 
November, 1439. 

Whether from a spirit of equity and moderation, or through the need he felt of 
the Hungarians to defend himself against the Turks, Albert spent nearly the 
whole of his reign in soothing and conciliating them. When the electors of the 
German empire offered him the imperial crown, he refused to accept of it, until 
he had obtained the consent of his Hungarian subjects, and the question under- 
went a long discussion in the diet. It was represented, and Avith some founda- 
tion, that the number of crowns which Sigismond wore simultaneously distracted 
his attention and prevented his uniting his forces for the defence of Hungary 
against the Ottomans ; but they nevertheless declared that they had no wish to 
deprive Albert of the honour which the Germans had offered him. He, in return, 
gave them a proof of his regard by issuing a decree confirming the oath he had 
taken at his coronation. In it he declared, among other things, " that there 
was nothing he had more at heart than the preservation of their rights and privi- 
leges ; that he would never bestow upon any foreigner any benefice, government, 
commission, land, or lordship • that he would never intrust them with the keep- 
ing of any fortress, and that he would never alien or pledge the revenues of the 
crown. ''f His reign only lasted three years, and, although just and moderate, he 
was the cause of many calamities and divisions, as we shall see hereafter. 

* Bonfin. Decad. iii> lib. iii. p. 439, 
t "The Decree of King Albert," of the year 1436, in the Prol, Art, v., xvi., &c. 



CHAPTER X. 

LADISIiAUS II, 

A.D. 1439—1444, ■ 

When Albert died, lie left his wife pregnant, and the Hungarians appeared, out 
of respect for her father's memory, to be very well-disposed tii live under her 
government, and that of Ladislaus, her son. But the power of the Turks had 
now reached such a pitch of magnitude, and they were making such formid- 
able preparations for the su.bjugation of western Europe, that it was feared by 
John Hunyadi that it would be in the highest degree imprudent to leave a 
woman and child at the head of affairs at such a critical period ; and in 
accordance with the established rights of the diet in such cases, the crown 
was offered to Ladislaus, king of Poland, a young prince of great valour and 
ability, upon condition that he should marry Albert's widow, and that Austria 
and Bohemia should be the inheritance of Albert's son, and Hungary and 
Poland, of those children whom she might bear to her second husband. The 
latter was, therefore, formally declared king, and ambassadors were despa,tched 
to fetch him. After much discussion and hesitation, he accepted the proffered 
kingdom, and set out for Hungary. 

The queen, upon hearing what had occurred, was loud in her complaints and 
lamentations, accusing herself of folly in suffering her son to be thus defrauded of 
his inheritance, and the nobles of treachery and ingratitude. Many, whom other 
weapons could not pierce, were moved by her prayers and tears, and determined 
to stand by her at all hazards ; and one of the archbishops, the Cardinal Zechi, 
placed him.self at the head of her party. Acting under his advice, the royal 
infant was carried in his cradle to Alba Regia, and placed on a sort of throne or 
raised dais, where the cardinal crowned him, but without calling the diet together, 
or going through any of the other formalities which the laws of the kingdom 
prescribed. The child's cries and his mother's t^ars Avhich fell fast throughout 
the ceremony, filled the spectators with evil foreboding, Avhich subsequent events 
too fully justified. The queen, immediately after the coronation, fled into Austria, 
carrying with her the crown, which had been confided to her husband Albert's 
care. 

Ladislaus soon after arrived in Buda, and was met by the palatine, Avho con- 
ducted him to the citadel, and there crowned and proclaimed him king, with 
all the ordinary solemnities; for want of the royal diadem, naaking use of 



104 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

wooden crown, taken off a statue of St. Stephen which stood in the hall. During 
the ceremony, a conspiracy to poison the new monarch was discovered just as the 
emissary was on the point of executing his detestable commission. He was 
instantly tried, and condemned to be drawn asunder by four horses, and the 
sentence was rigidly executed. 

The kingdom was now divided into two great parties, that of the queen and her 
son, and that of Ladislaus. They soon came to an open rupture, which was of 
course attended with the violence and calamities which civil war usually produces. 
The conflict was carried on with varied fortune, but without any intermission of 
suffering on the part of the unfortunate peasantry, who saw their villages burnt, 
their property carried off, and their farms laid waste, in a quarrel in which they 
had no interest whatever. The success, however, was generally on the side of the 
king, who had strengthened his party, both in the field and in the diet, by 
attaching to his interests John Hunyadi, whom he created waywode of 
Transylvania. The queen struggled gallantly to the last, but finding she was 
playing a losing game, she at last gave in, and committing her son and the crown 
to the care of Frederick III., emperor of Germany, she desisted from open 
hostilities, but never ceased to cause Ladislaus all the trouble and uneasiness 
in her power, by continually stirring up intrigues against him, both at home 
and abroad. 

The sultan, Amurath, thought that these internal dissensions woiild afford him 
a fair opportunity of attempting another invasion of Hungary, and assembling a 
large army, he marched along the Danube, till he reached Belgrade, a strongly 
fortified city, washed on both sides by the Save and the Danube, and considered 
by the Hungarians the key of their kingdom. On arriving before it, the Turks 
attempted to carry it by assa\ilt, but were vigorously repulsed. They then raised 
wooden towers and battering rams, to annoy the besieged by missiles, and, if pos- 
sible, effect a breach in the walls ; and at the same time, launched vessels on the 
Danube, to cut off all succours from Hungary. But owing to the valiant defence 
of the governor, a Florentine, of distinguished military abilities, all his efforts were 
defeated. He, nevertheless, continued the siege, in the hope that the garrison 
would capitulate, before Ladislaus could bring his undivided forces to their aid. 
The latter, as soon as he had subdued the queen's party, sent an embassy to 
Amurath, offering to enter into a treaty with him, in case he abandoned hostilities 
and withdrew his forces. The silltan craved time to consider his proposal, but 
employed the interval in making preparations for another vigorous assault. A 
breach had been made in the walls on the previous evening, and in the morning 
the soldiers, headed by the janissaries, advanced to the assault with great ardour, 
and succeeded in entering the breach. But no sooner had they done so, than the 
garrison, aided by the inhabitants, attacked them with such fury, that they were 
driven back with terrible slaughter. Great numbers were killed in the streets, and 
Christians having thrown Greek fire into the ditch, by which the faggots and 
stakes with Avhich it was filled were set in a blaze, many more were burnt or 



SIEGE or BELGRADE BY THE TURKS. 105 

smothered by the smoke when taking to flight. The forces embarked on the 
Danube fared no better ; and it was with no small discouragement and chagrin 
that Amurath recalled his troops, after having lost, in this single onset, nearly 
15,000 of his best men; and being greatly pressed for want of provisions, he at 
last determined to break up his camp and return home. At his departure, 
however, he left behind him his nephew, Isa-beg, with a large body of cavalry, 
who, fixing his head-quarters in Rascia, began to make frequent inroads into 
Transylvania, burning the houses and carrying away the men and cattle. 
Ilunyadi raised a strong body of horse and foot to defend his viceroyalty, and 
combining his forces with those of Nicholas Vilach, his most intimate friend and 
companion, he awaited the Turks at a place about midway between Belgrade and 
Sendrecz. Isa-beg immediately prepared to attack him. In the first onset the 
Turks compelled the Hungarian light-horse, which composed the wings of 
Hunyadi's army, to give way, and then turning, fell upon his centre with great 
fury. But there meeting with the men at arms, whose cuirasses gave them the 
advantage, the Ottomans were overthrown after a fierce struggle, and fled 
precipitately, leaving the flower of their troops dead upon the field. The 
Hungarians, headed by Hunyadi himself, pursued the fugitives for ten miles, 
and cut them down without mercy, and returned to Belgrade with a large number 
of prisoners, and laden with booty. When the news of this victory reached Buda, 
the joy of the court and of the people was great. Public thanksgivings were 
offered up in all the churches, and Ladislaus wrote a congratulatory letter to 
Hunyadi, thanking him for the great service he had rendered to Hungary and 
to Christendom, and encouraging him to follow up his successes, not only that he 
might secure fame and wealth in this world, but in the world to come life 
everlasting. 

But Amurath was not yet disheartened. He collected his broken forces, and 
putting them under the command of one of his pachas, Mezet Bey, a soldier of 
great valour and experience, he gave him instructions to invade Transylvania, 
and avenge the losses which the Turkish armies had sustained. He carried out 
his orders to the letter. He suddenly entered Hunyadi's province, leaving not 
a soul alive in the track of his soldiers, and turning the entire country into a 
wilderness. Htmyadi was taken by surprise, and having no force prepared to 
oppose the Turks, was compelled to take to flight. But he did not neglect his 
duty : he rode about through all the border towns and villages, particularly those 
inhabited by the Szeklers, calling on the men to take up arms in defence of their 
wives and children, and soon found himself at the head of a large force of 
irregular troops, with whom he pursued the invader by forced marches, and 
offered him battle. 

The engagement which followed was one of the most bloody of the campaign. 
Information was brought early in the day to Hunyadi that the Turkish general 
had given strict orders that every effort should be made to capture him or kill 
him, as the main support of the war. Upon hearing this, a Magyar gentleman, 



106 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

Simon Kemene, exchanged armour with Hunyadi, and rode into action with a 
strong body of cavahy. The battle began by slight skirmishes ; but at length 
the Turks perceiving Kemene, and taking him for the Christian general, directed 
the whole force of their onslaught against the troops which he commanded. The 
Hungarian soldiers defended their leader to the last, but at length, having fallen one 
by one, Kemene himself was at last overpowered and slain. The Turks now thought 
the victory achieved, as their loss had been prodigious ; but to their astonishment 
they now perceived a second Hunyadi advancing against them with fresh troops, 
and to add to their confusion, the Transylvanian prisoners broke loose in the 
camp, and snatching up the first weapons they could meet with, fell upon the 
rear of the Ottomans, who Avere nov/ utterly routed, and fled in terrible confusion, 
leaving four or five thousand men, and their general, Mezet Bey, dead upon the 
field. Their tents and baggage, and all the prisoners they had taken during the 
invasion, fell into the hands of the victors. The women and children crowded 
around Hunyadi, and fell weeping at his feet, calling him their saviour and 
deliverer, and invoking blessings on his head, A waggon-load of the spoil, drawn 
by ten horses, was sent to Ladislaus and the prince of Servia, who was then Avith 
him, containing, amongst other things, a goodly pile of Turks' heads, surm.ounted 
by that of the general. 

Amurath, enraged beyond measure at hearing of the overthrow of his army and 
the death of his general, raised a still greater force of 80,000 men in the spring of 
the following year, and sent it into Wallachia under the command of Sciabedin 
Bey. This army followed the example of its predecessors, slaughtering the 
inhabitants and laying waste the country through which it passed. 

Hunyadi awaited their approach in an entrenched camp in Transylvania Avith 
15,000 men. The Turkish general Avas astonished Avhen he heard of the smallness 
of the Christian army, and determined to surround it on all sides, and overAvhelm 
it by numbers. Hunyadi drew out his forces in the form of a wedge, and kept his 
flanks protected by the Avaggons, and after a long and fierce conflict, the Turks once 
more took to flight, leaving great numbers dead upon the field, and 5,000 prisoners, 
and 100 ensigns in the hands of the enemy. This Avas the famous battle of Vas- 
cape the greatest that Hunyadi ever gained. He returned to Buda in triumph, 
and presented the captured standards to the king. After this victory, Ladislaus 
fearing that the Avhole power of the Turkish empire might now be turned against 
him, and that his own forces, hoAvever favoured by fortune hitherto, might be 
unequal to the contest, called together a council of the tAVO legislative assemblies, 
atAvhich the pope's legate also attended, and consulted them as to the best course 
to be pursued in future. The legate gave his voice for Avar, and he Avas supported 
by George, the despot of Servia, Avho recounted to the assembly, with tears in his 
eyes, the terrible ravages Avhich the Turks had committed in his dominions, 
declaring that he had been driven into exile by them, and his children separated 
from him ; and imploring them not to abandon him Avithout aid or protection to the 
Avrath of a cruel and relentless enemy, and that enemy an infidel. His prayers 



BATTLE OF MORAVIA. 107 

seemed to have more effect than the legate's harangue ; for the diet, as soon as he 
had concluded, passed the resolutions necessary for carrying on the war. Ambas- 
sadors were despatched to the emperor of Germany, and other European sove- 
reigns, seeking aid against the common enemy. Most of them, however, excused 
themselves upon one pretence or another ; but great numbers of private individuals, 
both in France and Germany, being prompted by religious motives, took up arms 
and repaired to Hungary as volunteers. 

When the spring arrived, prayers having been offered up in all the churches 
for the success of the enterprise, Ladislaus started from Buda on the 1st of May, 
and marching along the Danube, crossed the frontiers of Bulgaria, and laid seige 
to the city of Sophia, Avhich, being badly fortified, surrendered after a slight 
resistance, and was burned to the ground, as well as all the villages in the neigh- 
bourhood. After leaving this, he arrived on the banks of the Moravia, where his 
scouts fell in, towards evening, with the advanced guard of the Turks. A council 
of war was then held in the king's tent, at which it was resolved that Hunyadi, 
with ten thousand horse, should attack the Ottomans by surprise in the night. 
The latter, accordingly, set forward, and, shortly before midnight, fovind himself 
close upon the enemy's camp ; and the moon just then breaking out so as 
to show him the nature of the ground in the vicinity, the Hungarians charged 
with loud cries. The Turks, in the first moments of surprise, scarce knew 
whether to fly or to remain ; but true, even in darkness and confusion, to the 
valorous instincts of the nation, they soon rallied, and stood on the defensive. 
Hunyadi, in the meantime, urged on his soldiers by the promise of a glorious 
victory and a heap of plunder ; and the report of his presence having gone 
abroad among the enemy, so great was the terror inspired by his name, that 
they instantly turned and fled, they knew not whither. The Hungarian cavalry 
pursued them in the moonlight, cutting them down for miles, without mercy ; 
and the Turks themselves, confused, panic-stricken, and seeing a foe in every 
one who approached them, in many instances turned their swords against one 
another, and completed whatever, in the work of destruction, the weakness or 
fatigue of the Christian army compelled them to leave unfinished. Thirty 
thousand of the Turks are said to have been slain, and their camp and baggage 
fell into the hands of the victors.* 

Tt was now determined, by the advice of the legate Julian, to follow up this 
success, to overrun Bulgaria, and, if possible, to force the passes of Mount 
Haemus, and attack Adrianople itself. The army, therefore, pushed forward with- 
out delay, taking possession of all the towns which lay in the line of their march ; 
a task which, in the majority of instances, was easily accomplished, as the inha- 
bitants Avere generally Christians, or at least of Sclavonic origin, and bore but a 
very unwilling allegiance to the sultan. When they approached the mountains, 
however, they, for the first time, began to perceive the difiiculties of the enter- 

* Knolles's History of the Turks, p. 278. The number seems to be greatly exaggerated. 



iO& HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

prise in which they had engaged. It was now midwinter, and, in addition to the 
piercing cold of the weather and the hardships and discomfort of a march across 
a rugged country, through snow and ice, they underwent dreadful sufferings from 
the great scarcity of food. There were but two passes on the hills, both of which 
the Turks had strongly fortified ; and they had rendered the heights in the 
vicinity inaccessible to the surest foot and steadiest eye, by pouring down great 
quantities of water, which the frost soon converted into a sheet of ice.*' After 
several ineffectual attempts, the troops began to lose heart, and it required all 
the energy and popularity of Hunyadi to prevent their rising into open mutiny. 
Things were in this position when the leaders were relieved from their perplexity 
by the news that the Turks had left theu' strongholds, and were descending into 
the low ground to offer battle, under the command of Carambey, the pasha of 
Romania ; who, in this, however, was departing from his instructions, as he had 
received express orders from the sultan to confine himself to the defence of the 
passes. The Hungarians halted and awaited his approach at the foot of the 
mountain called Konovics, Nov. 28, 1443. After beating off several irregular 
onsets of the Turkish cavalry, Hunyadi drew out his forces in battle array, and 
put himself at their head. " To die once," said he, " is a debt we owe to nature ; 
but to die in battle for faith and fatherland is a favour Avhich the Almighty 
bestows upon his chosen people only. Follow me ! God is with us ! " The 
Hungarians instantly charged, and the Turks meeting them with equal gallantry, 
a desperate conflict followed. The Christian forces had suffered so much from 
cold and hunger, that they gladly embraced death in preference to defeat and its 
attendant miseries in a savage and desolate country at a great distance from 
home ; and the Ottomans were burning with the desire of avenging their recent 
defeats and retrieving their losses. The Hungarian light horse flung themselves, 
again and again, upon the enemy with reckless bravery ; and though on each 
onset they left the ground strewed with their dead and dying, they returned, 
nothing daunted, to the fray. The Turks, at last, began to give ground, when 
Carambey led down fresh troops from the mountain, and renewed the contest. 
Hunyadi then sent out some light infantry, armed with pikes and boar spears, who, 
lying down among the bushes, stabbed the horses of the Turkish cavalry as they 
rode past, and spread confusion through the whole body. Carambey did every- 
thing that valour or skill could suggest, rallying his forces in every quarter of tke 
field, and encouraging them by his voice and example. The fate of the day was 
thus for a long time kept trembling in the balance, until an unexpected accident, at 
length, turned the scale. The Turkish general, in riding hurriedly across the 
field, got entangled in a morass, which the snow, lying thickly on the ground, 
concealed from his view ; and before he could extricate himself, was taken 
prisoner. The Turks, immediately on seeing their leader in the enemy's hands, 
fled in confusion. 

* Knolles's Hist, of the Turks, p. 279. 



REVOLT OF SCANUERBEG. 109 

After this victory, prince George and Hvmyadi were anxious once naore to 
attempt the forcing of the pass, and the king, though at first deterred by the 
remembrance of their former failure, at length gave a reluctant consent. The 
expedition was unfortunate from first to last. Encompassed by woods, and bogs, 
and craggy heights, and exposed to the incessant attacks of the Turks, who 
sallied from their fortresses, fought while successful, and retreated in safety when 
worsted, the sufferings of the Hungarian army at last became intolerable, and a 
retreat was determined upon. After long and toilsome marches they reached 
Buda, and entered amidst the acclamations of the citizens, who filled the windows 
and covered the housetops. The procession partook of the character of a Roman 
triumph in the palmiest days of the republic, but it will for ever remain a stain on 
Ladislaus and Hunyadi, that, in imitating Roman pomp, they imitated Roman 
cruelty and pride as well. We should consider it a curious feature in the 
Christianity of the middle ages, that its charity, and beneficence, and fair 
dealing were exercised only towards such as embraced and held its tenets, if we 
did not know that, even in the present day, a still narrower, and in many respects 
a more hateful intolerance, anathematises men merely for a diff'erence of sect ; but 
it may well excite our surprise that, in an age when chivalry was not yet dead, the 
champion knight of Christendom should have suffered a brave enemy, whose 
misfortunes were his only fault, to walk humiliated and degraded through hostile 
crowds, at his horse's head. Carambey, we are told, walked through the streets 
of Buda, boimd in chains, followed by thirteen bashaws and 4,000 captives of 
lesser rank, while Hunyadi, clothed in a triumphal robe, rode at the king's 
right hand.*^ Ladislaus and all the chiefs of the army repaired on foot to the 
church of Our Lady, where the captured standards were hung up over the altar, 
and a solemn Te Deum was chanted by the prelates and priests. 

Another formidable opponent now rose up against the Turks in an unexpected 
quarter, in the person of George Castriot, by the Turks called Scanderbeg. His 
father was hereditary prince of Epirus, or Albania ; a small district lying between 
the mountains and the Adriatic sea. Unable to contend against the sultan's power, 
Castriot was compelled to accept such conditions as he chose to impose; he 
agreed to pay an annual tribute, and delivered his four sons as hostages for his 
fidelity. The youths, after undergoing circumcision, were instructed in the 
Mahometan religion, and trained in the arms and arts of Turkish policy. The 
three elder brothers were confounded in the crowd of slaves ; and rumour said 
they were poisoned, but for the truth of this there is no positive evidence. The 
fourth brother, George, was however treated with favour and attention, and from 
his youth displayed the spirit and bravery of a soldier. He overthrew successively, 
in single combat, a Tartar, and two Persians who had carried defiance to the 
Turkish court, and thus commended himself to the notice of Amurath, and he 
received the appellation of Scanderbeg {Islenderheg , the lord Alexander), from the 

* KnoUes's History of the Turks, p. 382. 



110 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

Turks. ~ His father's dominions were reduced to a province of the Turkish 
empire, hut to compensate George for the loss of his inheritance, he received the 
rank and title of Sanjiak, and the command of 5,000 horse, and the prospect was 
held out to him of still further promotion. He served for a long time with 
honour in the wars of Europe and Asia ; but appears to have had the desire of 
avenging upon the Turks, whom he secretly hated, his father's wrongs, the fate of 
his three brothers, and the slavery of his country.^' Whether he Avas ever a 
sincere Mahometan is hard to determine. The old historians stoutly affirm that 
he was not ; but we find it difficult to believe them, when we know that, from 
the age of nine, he Avas instructed in the doctrines of the Koran, and that up to 
forty, he Avas a faithful and devoted follower of the sultan. However this may 
be, Ave can hardly acquit him of the charge of inexcusable dissimulation protracted 
through so long a period, and however lightly pious people in that age may have 
looked on his deceit and treachery, in consideration of the end they served, fcAV 
at the present day Avill acquiesce in their ajDology. 

At the battle in Avhich Carambey Avas taken, in the confusion of the rout, 
Scanderbeg suddenly rushed up to the reis effendi, or principal secretary, and Avith 
a dagger at his breast, extorted a firman, or patent for the government of Albania, 
and immediately on obtaining it, murdered the Avriter and his train, to prevent the 
speedy discovery of the plot. Surrounded by a feAV bold foUoAvers, he escaped in 
the night from the field of battle, reached his paternal mountains, and on pre- 
senting the firman at Oroya, the gates Avere at [once opened to him, and he 
assumed the command of the garrison. He noAV threAV ofi" the mask, abjured the 
Mahometan religion and his allegiance to the sultan, and declared himself the 
avenger of his family and country. In an assembly of the states of Epirus, he 
was unanimously elected general of the Turkish Avar. He organized an army, 
adjusted the finances, and Avithout Avaiting to be attacked, forthAvith advanced 
against the Turkish posts. Petrella, Petra Alba, and Stellusa fell before him, and 
then passing into the Turkish territories, he laid Avaste the Avhole country. Ali 
Bey Avas at last sent against him with an army of 40,000 men, but his strength 
rendering him careless, Scanderbeg attacked and totally defeated him with 
great slaughter. Amurath was thunderstruck by his losses, and not knoAving 
where the successes of the Hungarians and Albanians might end, he, at last, sent 
ambassadors to Ladislaus to crave for peace, offering to restore Servia to its 
prince, to ransom the captives, and to evacuate the Hungarian frontier, making no 
claim to Moldavia nor to that part of Bulgaria which he had lost during the Avar.j 
A diet Avas summoned at Szeguedin to consider his proposals, which Avere poAver- 
fully supported by George Brankovitz, the despot of Servia, Avhose interests Avould 
have been greatly benefited by the cessation of hostilities. After a long discussion 
they Avere agreed to, and a truce of ten years Avas concluded, Ladislaus SAvearing 

» Milmaii's Gibbon, vol. xii. p. 163-4. ' 
t Milman's Gibbon, vol. xiii. p. 163. KnoUes's History of the Turks, p. 289. 



TREATY WITH THE TURKS. Ill 

on the holy evangelists, and the Turkish ambassadors upon the Koran, well 
and faithfully to fulfil and keep it.* 

The cardinal Julian Caesarini was present at the discussion and signing of the 
treaty, but gave no sign of approval. He was secretly opposed to the peace, but 
being unable to give any valid cause for dissension, he remained silent ; before the 
diet was dissolved, however, he received the welcome news that Anatolia had been 
invaded by the Caramanian, and Thrace by the Greek emperor, and that the fleets 
of Genoa, Venice and Burgundy were masters of the Hellespont, and that the 
allies were impatiently awaiting the return of the victorious army of Ladislaus. 
Furnished with these materials, the cardinal addressed the diet in a long and 
artful harangue, reproaching them with deserting their fellow Christians in the 
hour of need, and when everything promised success ; declaring that there existed 
between them and God prior engagements, which made void the sacrilegious 
treaty into v/hich they had just entered ; that the vicar of Christ on earth was the 
Roman pontiff, in whose name he absolved them from their oaths and called upon 
them to renew the war against the infidels. Strange to say, his proposition was 
adoj)ted on the spot, and preparations were forthwith made for recommencing 
hostilities. Hunyadi vehemently opposed this gross breach of faith, assuring 
the king that all the bulls that were ever written could not release him from 
subjection to the laws of honour ; but we regret to add that his scruples were 
silenced, and his aid secured by the promise of the kingdom of Bulgaria, in case 
the campaign were brought to a prosperous issue. f Ladislaus could not have 
been in a much worse position for entering upon the conflict. Upon the 
proclamation of the peace, the German and French volunteers had departed 
homeward in disgust ; the Poles were exhausted by distant warfare, and perhaps 
tired of foreign command, and their palatines accepted the first license and 
hastily retired to their provinces and castles. Even Hungary itself was divided 
by faction, or restrained by just and laudable scruples. More than one ill omen 
warned the king against the enterprise upon which he was entering. Drakul, the 
waywode of Wallachia, whom he called upon to accompany him, with his vassals, 
on seeing the royal forces, which did not amount to more than 20,000 men, 
presumed to remark that their numbers did not exceed the hunting retinue that 
sometimes attended the sultan, and presented Ladislaus with two horses of 
matchless speed, as if to mark his evil foreboding of the event. But the king 
felt such implicit confidence in the skill and valour of Hunyadi, and the 
prayers and protection of the church, that he scarce felt a pang of doubt or of 
remorse. The Turks on their side literally fulfilled the treaty. They surrendered 
their strongholds in Servia and Rascia ; they restored the captives and hostages 

* A recent French, writer states tliat Hunyadi v/as bribed by Brankovitz to promote the 
treaty by the gift of a magnificent estate at Vilagosvur, and that at the diet, as if ashamed of 
his weakness, he preserved an ambiguous silence. As no authority is cited, however, it 
would be hardly fair to adopt the story. 

t Knolles's History of the Turks, p. 292. Bonfin. Dec. iii. lib. vi. p. 485. 



112 



HISTORY OF HUNGAHY. 




which they held, and ransomed Carambey by a payment 40,000 ducats, and sent 
home to the despot George his two blind sons. 



BATTI^ OF VAK,:NA. 113 

Ladislaus now sent off notice to the Greek emperor, and Francis the Florentine 
cardinal, who was then lying in the straits of the Hellespont with a fleet of seventy 
galleys, that he had resolved upon breaking the ' treaty, lest they, on hearing of 
the peace, should desist from hostilities and return home. He also wrote to 
Scanderbeg, apprising him of his intention, and asking his aid against the infidels. 
The latter joyfully acceded, and set forward with a considerable force ; but on 
arriving on the frontiers of Servia, the despot, piqued by the retention of some of 
his fortresses by Ladislaus, refused him a passage. 

■ The Hungarian army in the meantime ' advanced towards the Turkish frontier, 
capturing all the towns and castles on their way, until at last, ori arriving before 
Sumium and Pezechium, the Turkish garrisons, trusting to the strength of the 
fortificationp, offered a strenuous resistance. Both places were, however, carried by 
assault, and above five thousand of the Turks put to the sword.'"' After the passage 
of the Danube, two roads might kad to Constantinople and the Hellesjsont ; 
the one difficult and rugged, but direct ; the other more tedious and secure over a 
level country and along the shores of the Euxine, in which their flanks, according 
to Scythian discipline, might always be covered by a moveable fortification of wag- 
gons. The latter was wisely preferred, and the army marched through the plains 
of Bulgaria, burning with wanton cruelty the churches and villages of the Chris- 
tian natives, simply because they happened to be within the Turkish territory, 
and at last arrived at Varna, a city pleasantly situated upon the sea coast. 
• In the year 1442, Amurath, tired of the fatigues of government and the toils of 
war, had abdicated the throne in favour of his son Mahomet, and retired at the 
early age of forty to a pleasant and secluded residence at Magnesia, where he 
passed his time in a round of epicurean delights in the society of dancing girls 
and of terrestrial houris more remarkable for their beauty than their virtue. f He 
was wakened from his inglorious repose by hasty messages from the bashaws of 
the European provinces, apprising him of the breach of the truce and the advance 
of the Hungarian army, and imploring him to take the command of the Ottoman 
forces, as the extreme youth of the reigning sultan rendered him unequal to so 
great an emergency. Amurath forthwith left the cloister, and collecting a large 
army, reached the Hellespont by forced marches, but to his surprize found the 
passage stopped by the Venetians and the pope's galleys. He was now at his 
wit's end, but marching along the shore to the straits of the Bosphorus, he there, 
according to some, awed or seduced the Greek emperor into granting him a 
passage, and induced the Genoese merchant vessels to transport his soldiers and 
their baggage to the European shore at the charge of a ducat a head, with the mer- 
cenary connivance of the Catholic admiral. He then advanced towards Varna by 
hasty marches at the head of sixty thousand men. When the Cardinal Julian and 

* KnoUes's Hist, of the Turks, p. 296. 
t Gibbon has here fallen into a curious mistake, which Milman has corrected. He sup- 
poses the sultan to have led in his retirement the life of an ascetic, watching, prayhig, and 
fasting. See vol. xii. p. 148, note. 



114 HISTORY OF HUNGARY, 

Hunyadi obtained accurate intelligence as to tlie extent of his forces, they pro» 
posed the tardy arid impracticable measure of a retreat. But the king refused to 
listen to them. He was resolved to trust to the valour of his army and the for- 
tune of war, and had made up his mind to conquer or die. The arrangement of 
his forces was committed to the skill and experience of Hunyadi. In order to 
prevent the Christian army from being surrounded by the mighty hosts of the 
infidels, their rear was protected by steep hills, one of their flanks by a marsh, and 
the other by a pile of waggons, and in this position they waited the onslaught of 
the Turks. The centres were commanded by the two princes, and the beglerbegs 
or generals of Anatolia and Romania commanded on the right and left against the 
adverse divisions of Hunyadi and the despot of Servia. The battle began by a 
series of skirmishes, by which great numbers were slain on both sides, but without 
any important result. At last Hunyadi charged with the Transylvanian and 
Wallack cavalry, and overwhelmed the Turkish Aving commanded by Karasi 
Bey, who was slain in the attempt to rally his flying troops. Similar success 
attended the despot, and confusion speedily spread throughout the whole Turkish 
army. Amurath, on seeing the flight of his squadrons, despaired of his kingdom 
and his life, and was turning his horse's head to quit the field, when a veteran 
janissary seized his bridle rein, and had the courage to reproach him with his 
cowardice. A copy of the treaty to which the Hungarian king had sworn, had 
been displayed in the front of the battle, as a monument of Christian perfidy, and 
the sultan pointing to it in his distress, exclaimed, " Behold, thou crucified Christ, 
the league which thy followers have made with me, and have, without any cause, 
violated. Now, if thou be a God, as they say thou art, and as we dream, revenge 
the Avrong now done unto thy name and me, and show thy pov/er upon thy per- 
jured people, who in their deeds deny thee, their God!" 

Whether owing to the prayer or not we cannot take upon ourselves to decide, 
but certain it is, that at this moment the crisis of the day had arrived, and fortune 
was about to desert the Christian standards. Ladlslaus had been placed by 
Hunyadi in an impregnable position, and the prudent soldier earnestly requested 
him not to leave it until he received a signal from him which should show him 
that the proper time for action had arrived. But, unfortunately, the former was 
surrounded by a knot of soldier bishops, whose martial ardotir and hatred of 
infidels had induced them to abandon the cloister and gird on the sword ; and 
on seeing the Turkish hosts flying before Hunyadi, their zeal began to get the 
better of their discretion, and they represented to the king that it would be 
inglorious for him not to share in the honour of the victory which was now 
ail but achieved, and urged him to sally out and take part in the overthrow 
of the sultan's army-, and, it might be, of his empire. The advice but too well 
accorded with Ladislaus's own desire. He left his position, and charged furiously 
across the field, and bursting through the disordered ranks of the enemy, speedily 
found his progress stayed by the impenetrable phalanx of the janissaries, who 
had not as yet taken part in the engagement. Overwhelmed by a cloud of 



EOUT OF THE HUNGARIANS AND DEATH OP THE KING. 115 

javelins, he fell at the feet of the infantry, and a Turkish soldier cutting off his 
head with a scimitar, held it up to the gaze of the Hungarians on the point of a 
spear. The latter, on seeing their king fall, immediately fled, and all the valour 
and skill of Hunyadi were not sufficient to restore the fortune of the day. He 
made several desperate efforts to rescue the body of Ladislaus, but, overwhelmed 
by numbers, he escaped with difficulty from the melee, and rode off" the field at 
the head of the remnant of the Wallack cavalry. Ten thousand Christians fell 
on this disastrous day ; and though the loss of the Turks did not by any means 
bear so large a proportion to their total strength, the sultan was not ashamed to 
confess that another such victory Avould be as bad as a defeat. By his command, a 
column Avas erected upon the spot where Ladislaus fell, bearing an inscription 
which paid a well-merited tribute to his valour and bewailed his misfortune. 

The cardinal Julian Caesarini, a man of noble Roman family, learned and 
accomplished, a good soldier and a bad priest, who had distinguished himself in 
the wars of his age, and had attempted to extinguish Bohemian heresy in the 
blood of Bohemian heretics, met on the field of Varna the fate he merited by 
counselling the king and the diet to commit the perjury which had led to the 
defeat. He fled from the battle mortally wounded, and was a short time after 
found half-naked and in the agonies of death by the edge of a neighbouring 
forest. It was said that his avarice was so powerful, even in death, that he 
retarded his flight by loading himself with booty, which tempted the cupidity of 
some Christian fugitives, and induced them to strip arid abandon him. The great 
mass of the Hungarian soldiers who escaped the sword of the enemy scarce met 
with a better fate, but were either lost in the adjoining fens, perished of cold 
and hunger in the woods, or, after wandering about for some days, fell at length 
into the hands of the Turkish cavalry, and were sent as slaves to distant provinces 
of the empire. The battle was fought on the 10th of November, 1444. 



K 2 



OHAPTEK XI. 

I^ADISLAXJS III. — REGENCY Oi' HUNYADI. 
A.D. 1444—1457. 

When the news of the battle of Varna reached Hungary, the lamentation was 
loud and great, but as soon as the first moments of surprise and grief had passed 
away, the attention of the diet was turned to the necessity of providing a successor 
for Ladislaus. Their choice fell upon Ladislaus III., then only nine years old, the 
posthumous son of Albert, whom his toother had committed to the care of 
Frederick, emperor of Germany, though more out of respect for his grandfather, 
Sigismond, than from any bud of promise which could as yet be found in him. 
But, in any case a regency would be necessary for some years, and as in the 
present emergency it was desirable that the ofiice should be filled by a man of 
acknowledged I energy and courage, John Hunyadi was unanimously chosen 
governor of the kingdom during the king's minority. 

During the ensuing four years, the attention of the Turks being called off" by 
Scanderbeg, the new governor was enabled to devote his whole attention to the 
internal administration of the country, the allaying of the feuds and quarrels of 
the nobility, the reform of the courts of justice, and the adjustment of the finances, 
which had fallen into disorder during the late troubles. His aff"ability, moderation 
and prudence secured for him the respect and confidence of all classes of men, 
and enabled him to place the kingdom in an admirable state of defence against the 
next storm which might arise in the east. He made strenuous efforts to induce 
Frederick to surrender the person of the young king and the Hungarian crown, 
which he had in his keeping ; but the latter, hoping, no doubt, that their 
possession would somehow or other at some period advance his own interests, 
refused to comply, and he was supported in his refusal by a small section of the 
Hungarian nobility, headed by XJlric de Cilly, the uncle of Ladislaus, who himself 
claimed the regency. 

In 1448, Hunyadi received intelligence that the Turks were again making 
preparations for another invasion of Hungary, by raising a large army both in 
Europe and in Asia. Nothing daunted by the disaster at Varna, he called upon the 
nobility once more to range themselves under his standard, and having joined his 
forces with those of the waywode of Wallachia, he began his march against the 
enemy with an army of 22,000 men. Having passed the Teyss, he crossed the 
frontiers of Servia, and called upon the despot to contribute his quota of aid to the 



BAITLK or COSSOVA. 117 

expedition; but the wily George, being jealous of Hunyadi's elevation to the 
regency, and too proud to serve under his banner, upon one pretence or another 
refused to comply. This excited the ire of Hunyadi, who punished his lukewarm- 
ness in the Christian cause by laying waste the country on the line of his march ; 
and the despot, on the other hand, to be revenged for his losses, sent accurate 
information to Amurath of the strength and destination of the Hungarian army. 
The sultan availing himself of the intelligence, suffered Hunyadi to advance a 
considerable distance into Bulgaria without offering any opposition, and then by a 
sudden movement, got between him and the Danube, and having thus cut off 
his retreat, left him no alternative but to fight or surrender. Both armies found 
themselves in the great plain of Cossova, three sides of which are bounded by moun- 
tains, and the fourth by the river Schichniza. Hunyadi encamped on a small hill 
in the centre, there to await reinforcements from Scanderbeg, as he feared with his 
small force to encounter the mighty host of the Turks, who numbered full 80,000 
strong. Amurath, however, determined to force him to give battle, and for this 
purpose took every means to cut off his supplies of forage and provisions. At 
length, no other resource being left, the Hungarian general drew out his little 
army, divided it into thirty-two battalions, and having communicated his plans to 
the leaders, delivered a short and stirring address to the men, telling them that 
their own safety and the safety of their country now depended on their valour ; 
that the Turks to be sure were numerous, but strength did not lie in numbers, 
but in courage, discipline, and, above all, in the justice and sacredness of the 
cause for which they fought ; and bade them remember that God and the saints 
were on their side, and would aid in avenging the death of their king and 
countrymen at Varna, if they but behaved like men. 

The battle soon after commenced by distant skirmishing, but the Turks, 
confident in their numbers, soon advanced to close quarters, and in a hand-to-hand 
encounter of three hours duration, the Hungarians again and again repulsed the 
bravest of the Ottomans. Hunyadi had planted a battery on the hill which 
committed great havoc in the Turkish ranks, and he himself was constantly 
moving from one point to the other, animating the soldiers by his presence, and 
whenever he saw the troops in any part of the field giving way, he hastened 
to restore their confidence by the example of his own prowess. The conflict 
continued with varied success till dark, and the armies on both sides lay on the 
field all night — > 

"The weary to sleep and the wounded to die." 

At sunrise on the morrow the combat was resumed ; but the Turks now sent into 
action forty thousand fresh troops, who had not struck a blow on the previous day ; 
while most of the Hungarians were either Avounded or worn out by fatigue and 
"Watching. Amurath, chagrined by meeting with such opposition from so weak an 
enemy, led his troops to the attack in person, with terrible threats of punishment 
in case of failure, and warned Ihem that throughout the day his eye would be upcn 



118 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

them, and woe to the coward and the laggard ! Hunyadi implored his followers 
once more to stand fast for the love of Grod, and the safety of their wives and chil- 
dren, and was answered by loud shouts of "Death or victory!" The Turkish 
squadrons now charged with redoubled fury, and on being repulsed, pretended to fly 
with precipitation, and the Hungarians being drawn out of their entrenchments in 
pursuit, the enemy turned upon them, and great numbers were in this way slaugh- 
tered or captured. This ruse was several times repeated, and on each occasion 
with more or less success, until night once more brought truce and rest. The 
morning of the third day dawned upon a fearful sight. The field was strewed 
thick Avith the dead and dying, and the ground was slippery with gore. Despair 
reigned M'ithin the Hungarian camp. One-third of the Christian army had fallen, 
and of the survivors hardly one had escaped unhurt. At day-break Hunyadi 
charged at the head of the Wallack cavalry, and the rest of the nobles followed 
with their companies, more in the hope of selling their lives dearly than of gaining 
a victory. Zechel, the nephew of Hunyadi, fell in the first onset, and almost at 
the same moment several of the most distinguished of the Hungarian officers met 
with a similar fate. The soldiers, disheartened by the loss of their leaders, began 
to waver, and Amurath, seeing his advantage, poured in fresh troops upon the 
fainting Christians, and speedily decided the fate of. the day. The wings of the 
Magyar army gave way in confusion, and at last fled precipitately, and from noon 
till night the Turkish squadrons followed hard on the track of the fugitives, 
cutting them down without mercy. The flower of the Hungarian nobility were 
left on the field, and their camp, and baggage, and standards fell into the hands of 
the enemy. Hunyadi fled as soon as he saw that all hope was lost, and rode for 
three days through the wilds of Wallachia without food or drink. On the fourth 
his horse broke down, and he pursued his way on foot. He was attacked in a 
wood by two robbers, who stripped him ; but beginning to quarrel about a gold 
crucifix that he wore round his neck, he snatched tip a sword, and having slain 
one, put the other to flight. He soon after fell in with a shepherd, who hospitably 
entertained him in his hut with bread and water and onions, and his strength 
having been thus recruited, he made his way to Sendrecz, Upon hearing of hia 
arrival, the despot of Servia caused him to be arrested, and kept him in close 
confinement until he had obtained the restoration of all the castles and towns 
which Ladislaus had unjustly detained, and until Hunyadi promised his younger 
son Mathias in marriage to his daughter, and to surrender his eldest son 
Ladislaus as a hostage. Hunyadi had no sooner reached Hungary than he 
assembled a large army, and entering Servia, laid waste the despot's dominions 
with fire and sword, until he was glad to sue for peace, aild send back Ladislaus. 

This had been no sooner granted than the unfortunate George found himself 
involved in new troubles. Amurath, his son-in-law, hearing that Himyadi had 
fallen into his hands, fully expected that he would deliver him up to him, and on 
learning that he had set him at liberty, loaded him with reproaches and invaded 
his territory. The despot was now forced to crave assistance from Hunyadi, 



FALL OF COISISTANTINOPLE. 



11& 



which the latter, from the desire to be revenged upon the Turks, readily granted, 
and routed them in a battle fought in Rascia. 

On the 9th of February, 1451, Amurath died. "Sultan Murad, or Araurath," 
says Cantemir, " lived forty-nine, and reigned thirty years, six months, and 
eight days. He was a just and valiant prince, of a great soul, patient 
of labours, learned, merciful, religious, and charitable ; a lover and encou- 
rager of the studious, and of air who excelled in any art or science; a good 
emperor and a great general. No man obtained more or greater victories 
than Amurath ; Belgrade alone withstood his attacks. Under his reign the 
soldier was ever victorious, the citizen rich and secure. If he subdued any 
country, his first care was to build mosques and caravanseras, hospitals 
and colleges. Every year he gave a thousand pieces of gold to the sons 
of the prophet, and sent two thousand five hundred to the religious persons of 
Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem." The accuracy of this portrait has been doubted 
by many competent to form an opinion, but there can be little danger in affirming, 
that in all the leading features of his character there was enough of the good and 
great, making allowance for his creed, position, and education, and the age in 
which he lived, to entitle him to a place amongst the best of the Ottoman 
sovereigns. 

He was succeeded by his son, Mahomet IL, and two years after his accession 
to the throne occurred one of the most tremendous calamities that have ever 
befallen modern Europe. Constantinople and a small territory adjoining it had, 
like the wing of an ancient and honourable house, survived the fall of the 
western empire, and still preserved, in her language, refinement, arts, magni- 
ficence, and even in her vices and profligacy, some remains of the ancient glory of 
the mighty people Avho put their feet on the necks of kings. Rome had long 
before succumbed to the strokes of the barbarians. The Greeks, farther removed 
from the reach of the invaders, continued to drag on a precarious existence, 
supported and protected by the prestige of an ancient fame, rather than by present 
power. But their hour was now come, and the destroyer was at hand. 

Mahomet stormed Constantinople on the 30th of May, 1453. Constantlne Avas 
the name of the last of its emperors, as well as of its founder, and he proved 
himself not unworthy of it by fighting on the ramparts and in the breach, from 
the commencement of the siege until he fell covered with wounds, upon the last 
fatal day. His kingdom departed with his life. Some few of his subjects rallied 
round him in defence of their city and their faith, but the great majority were 
licentious, indolent, and corrupt — more intent upon sensual pleasure and hair- ' 
splitting in theology, than on the preservation of their liberty and religion. The 
Magyar ambassadors, who had been sent to mediate between Mahomet and the 
Greeks, just arrived in time to see the former seat himself upon the throne of his 
fallen enemy, and divide among his followers the spoils of the vanquished. 
" Return to your own country," said he, addressing them, " and tell your master 
he must speedily make his choice between war and peace, for as there is but one 



120 HISTORY OF HUNGAKY. 

God in the heavens, so also the earth must henceforth have but one ruler." Every 
preparation was now made for war. The diet voted money with alacrity, and took 
all other needful steps, to make them ready for the storm that was now rolling 
towards the frontiers of Hungary. Hunyadi opened the campaign in spring, and 
in the first engagement defeated Ferez Bey near Sendrecz, in Servia, and 
returning in triumph to Belgrade, he knighted his son Mathias, who, though 
not more than fourteen, had already signalised himself by his bravery in battle. 
Girding on him the sword of Andrew Laczkofi, the companion-in-arms of Louis 
the Great, he dubbed him knight, in the name of God, of the holy Virgin, 
and of all the holy kings of Hungary. 

Daring all this time the efforts of Hunyadi were constantly frustrated by the 
intrigues of the palatine, Nicholas Gara, a man of no talents, and greatly addicted 
to tricks of low intrigue, who was entirely devoted to Cilly, the king's uncle. 
But Ladislaus could not forget that he owed his throne to Hunyadi, and the 
services which he had rendered to the country were so striking, and so widely 
acknowledged by the people, that it would have been dangerous to have 
attempted his removal from the post of lieutenant-governor. Perceiving that 
nothing could be effected by intrigue, the conspirators had recourse to assassina- 
tion ; but Hunyadi escaped the snare. At length, yielding his personal feelings 
to the interests of his country, he consented to a reconciliation with his 
enemies, and even to allow his son, Ladislaus, to marry the daughter of the 
palatine. 

In the meanwhile, the other nations of Christendom, becoming terrified at the 
progress made by the Turks, seemed at last to be about to afford efficient aid to 
the Magyars in their arduous and, in many respects, unequal struggle. A crowd 
of English, French, German, Genoese, and Venetian knights hastened to Hungary 
to enlist themselves under the banner of the king. Ladislaus himself furnished 
twenty thousand men, but who amongst so many renowned warriors and heir.s of 
illustrious names was to assume the chief command ? Hunyadi offered to bring 
twenty thousand men into the field at his own expense, in case the allied 
sovereigns allowed him to lead the united Christian forces, pledging himself, in 
case they adhered to him faithfully, to fight his way to Jerusalem itself. The 
unanimous voice of the diet bestowed upon him the wished-for post ; and 
Ladislaus, returning from Vienna, without hesitation ratified their decision. As 
if, however, this short interval of attention to imperative duties had disabled the 
king for further effort, he secretly made his escape from the camp, and returned 
to Austria. His flight spread a panic through the whole army, and thousands of 
soldiers immediately deserted. But Hunyadi was not discouraged. Supported 
by the monk John of Capistrano, he set out to the relief of the fortress of 
Belgrade, which was defended by his brother-in-law, Szilagi, against a large 
besieging force of the Ottomans. Collecting all the boats from the rivers for 
miles around, he rapidly descended the Danube, destroyed the Turkish flotilla, 
and threw himself into Belgrade, where he was received with shouts of rejoicing. 



DEATH OF JOHN HUNYADI. 



121 



The siege which followed was one of the most remarkable in history, from the 
unexampled bravery of the defence, and the terrible renown of the assailants. 
Europe watched the conflict in dread suspense. Hunyadi not only displayed the 
highest qualities of a general, but fought in the trenches as a common soldier, 
killing twelve Turks in one day with his own hand. The sultan, enraged at his 
repulse, swore by the beard of the prophet that he would take the town or die. 
" It is easy to die," said the chief of the janissaries, " but not to conquer 




EXECUTION OE LADISLAUS HUNYADI. 



Hunyadi." At last, after repeated failures, having in a single assault lost thirty 
thousand of his best troops, Mahomet raised the siege in despair. 

But the victor did not survive to hear the shouts of joy with which the whole 
kingdom hailed his triumph. The warworn soldier who had faced death upon 
fifty battle-fields, to whom the bravest of the brave people had looked to lead 
them in the deadliest onset, escaped the thousand dangers of hostile swords to 
die by slow disease upon the bed of sickness. The hardships of the siege brought 
on fever, and, after lingering for some weeks, his iron constitution gave way, and 
he sank into the grave. 

Hunyadi was essentially a child of the people. Even if the story of 



122 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

his kingly birth be true, he derived nothing from it of those great features 
of his character which caused his countrymen to look upon him as a strong 
tower of defence against the face of their enemy. To be a graceful courtier he 
needed but a fine figure and a drop of royal blood, though it flowed through 
the vilest intrigue that ever sullied woman's fame, or stained the escutcheon 
of a noble; but to be a gallant warrior, and a great statesman, he needed 
a true heart, and an iron intellect — precious gifts that crowns and coronets can 
never bestow. He possessed them both, and few men have used them better. 
With manners as simple and heart as tender as a child, he was the delight of his 
immediate friends, whilst his lofty and commanding stature, and lion-like courage, 
Avon the affections of the masses. Christendom did not forget to honour its 
greatest champion. Pope Callixtus III., the head and representative of the visible 
church, instituted the feast of the Transfiguration to be a continual memorial of 
the discomfiture of the Mussulmans, and the glory of the departed hero : but his 
most splendid epitaph is the regret of the Ottoman prince, who sighed that he 
could no longer hope for revenge on the single antagonist who had triumphed 
over his arms. 

When Hunyadi was gone, the intrigues which he had kepi in check had free 
course, and the malevolence which Ladislaus had always entertained towards him 
was now vented upon his family. Its first manifestation was in the appointment of 
Count Cilly to the government of the kingdom, and Mcholas Ujlaki to the com- 
mand of the military forces. The garrison of Belgrade, irritated at what they 
considered to be an insult to the memory of Hunyadi, sAvore to be revenged both 
on Cilly and the king. On the other side, the count openly declared his intention 
of repairing to Belgrade for the purpose of "making an end of the dogs of 
Wallacks," as he called the sons of Hunyadi. Upon his arrival, hoAvever, the 
commandant of the citadel refused to admit the foreign infantry who accompanied 
him; and although this disappointment in some measure frustrated his schemes, 
it did not diminish the overbearing insolence of his manner. In his very first 
interview Avith Ladislaus Hunyadi, he loaded him Avith threats and reproaches, 
and then, draAving his SAVord, Avounded him severely on the head and hands ; 
when the friends of the young soldier, rushing in, cut Cilly to pieces on the 
spot. 

This murder Avas disapproved of, as a matter of course, by every one. There 
Avas nothing to excuse it but gross proA^ocation, or, perhaps, Ave should rather 
say the stern necessity of self-defence. The king SAVore on the Eucharist that no 
evil should befal Hunyadi for Avhat he had done ; but the palatine, Nicholas Gara, 
the intimate friend of Count de Cilly, at last succeeded in overcoming his scruples, 
and the tAvo brothers Avere arrested and imprisoned in Buda, in March, 1457. 
Without any investigation, or even the form of a trial, Ladislaus Avas sentenced 
to be beheaded in the square of St. George. In the full persuasion that through- 
out his short life he had in everything acted for the safety and honour of his 
native country, and in a manner Avorthy of the great name he bore, the young 



EXECUTION OF LADISLAUS AND DEATH OF LADISLAUS III. 123 

man walked to the place of execution with, the firm and heroic air of a martyr, 
wearing the purple robe with Avhich the king had presented him when he adopted 
him as his brother. When the vast crowd which had assembled to witness his 
execution saw the son of their hero ascending the scaffold, with his hands tied 
behind his back, they could not refrain from uttering a loud groan of grief and 
indignation. His hair having been cut off, he uttered a few words in justification 
of the act for which he had been condemned, and knelt to receive the stroke of the 
executioner. Four times the latter missed his aim, either through cruelty or 
nervousness, and Ladislaus, rising up, told him, in a calm voice, that it was against 
the law to repeat the attempt so often. The king, who was present, threatened the 
functionary with heavy punishment in case he again failed in the performance of 
his horrid task, and in another moment the head of his victim rolled towards 
him along the scaffold, as if reproaching him with this great crime. He could no 
longer remain in Hungary. Whenever he appeared he was followed by a howl 
of hatred, and he, therefore, took his departure directly for Austria, followed 
by the curses of the people. 

The whole kingdom was roused into a ferment. Hatred to Ladislaus, contempt 
for his government, and sorrow for young Hunyadi, combined to give rise to scenes 
of perfect anarchy all over the country ; and it soon became evident that it was 
no fleeting ebullition of popular indignation, but deep-rooted discontent, which 
could only be quieted by the death of its author. This took place shortly after- 
wards. He was poisoned by the Bohemians, when on his Avay to celebrate his 
marriage -Avith Margaret of France, daughter of Charles VH. No sooner was the 
news spread abroad, than the revolutionary movements ceased, and the most 
earnest desire was manifested by all to repair, as far as lay in their power, the 
injustice done to the family of Hunyadi. 

The great objection to an elective monarchy is found in the turbulent intrigues 
to which it gives rise upon the close of each reign. The right of the people to 
elect their ruler, viewed in the abstract, does not admit of a doubt ; but it may 
well be questioned, whether it is at all probable that, in a vast multitude of men^ 
agitated by the passions of avarice, envy, ambition, and selfishness, the might 
of the strong, and the wealth of the great, will not, in many cases j outweigh 
the calm reason and unbiassed judgment of the thinking and upright minority. 
The prize is so splendid, that, in the struggle to obtain it, the voice of honour and 
patriotism and the precepts of religion are too often unheeded. If ever the truth 
of an observation was well supported by examples drawn fi'om history, this is, 
above all. An elective monarchy ruined Poland ; and we are greatly mistaken if 
our readers, before they reach the end of this history, do not arrive at the conclu- 
sion that it was the remote cause of the ruin of Hungary also. 

At the death of a Hungarian monarch, a host of competitors to the throne 
arose on every side, and each set to work every engine of bribery and 
corruption within his reach to insure his own election. The quarrels thus raised 
were 'often protracted for years, or through the entire space of the succeeding 



124 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

reign, and entailed severe injury upon the commerce and industry of the 
country. 

Upon the death of Ladislaus, three claimants appeared for the Magyar crown — 
Frederic III., emperor of Germany, and Uladislaus, son of Casimir, king of Poland, 
by Elizabeth, sister of the deceased king; and a diet having been convoked at Pesth, 
in December, 1457, Nicholas Gara there put forward his claims also, ground- 
ing them upon his relationship with the royal family, having married the sister of 
Count Cilly. But Szilagyi, the commandant of the fortress of Belgrade, deter- 
mined not to suffer injustice to be done to the widow and surviving sons of John 
Hunyadi, and therefore marched upon Pesth at the head of forty thousand men, 
declaring that he entertained the utmost respect for the constitutional rights of 
the diet, and would not interfere with the exercise of their right of election ; but 
at the same time stated his firm resolve not to allow the Hungarian sceptre to be 
grasped by the hand of a foreigner. 

The foreign ambassadors next appeared to state the wishes of their sovereigns. 
Among them Charles VII. of France demanded the crown for one of his sons, or 
for the man upon whom he should bestow his daughter's hand. But Szilagyi cut 
short their deliberations by surrounding the place of meeting with an armed force ; 
and whilst every one was expecting him to proclaim himself king, he disappointed 
all by proclaiming his relative, Mathias Corvinus, the youngest son of the great 
Hunyadi. A shout of assent from the majority of the diet testified their respect 
for the memory of the hero, and their sorrow for the untimely death of his son 
Ladislaus. For a few minutes Gara made desperate efforts to retard their de- 
cision, but the acclamations of the troops, "Long live King Mathias!" put an 
end to all hesitation. 



CHAPTEE XII. 

MAIHIAS CORVIJSUS. 

A.D. 1457—1489. 

Mathias was still a prisoner at Prague, when the news of his election reached 
him, in the keeping of Podiebrad, who refused to release him until he had 
received 40,000 golden florins, and extorted from him a promise that he Avould 
marry his daughter Catharine. Few men have ever had finer intellectual qualities, 
united with a more commanding personal appearance, than Mathias Corvinus ; 
and when we take into account the greatness of the name which he inherited 
from his father, we may readily believe that few monarchs have ever ascended the 
throne under more favourable auspices. Passing over his able and upright 
suppression of the intrigues which disturbed the commencement of his reign, we 
find his administration of the internal afi"airs of his kingdom marked by an ability 
and broadness of view that were wonderful in so yoxmg a man, and procured for 
him from his people the title of Mathias the Just. Having calmed the internal 
discord in which he found the kingdom involved at his accession, he sternly refused 
the ofier of an alliance made him by Mahomet II., and defeated the Turks in many 
brilliant engagements, and reduced all the dep endent provinces, such as Servia and 
Bosnia, to complete subjection. These successes were, however, in some measure 
counterbalanced by the loss of the brave Szilagyi, to whom Mathias owed his 
throne. Having been taken prisoner by the enemy, he was remorselessly put to 
death. The coasts of the Adriatic, most valuable to the Magyar empire, as 
affording it an extensive sea-board, did not appear to possess their true value in 
the eyes of Mathias ; for when reminded that this territory had formerly belonged 
to Hungary in the time of Louis the Great, and had been lost since his death, and 
that there was now, a favourable opportunity of recovering it, he coldly replied, 
that he could not now off'end the Venetians, as he hoped to form an alliance with 
them and the pope against the Ottomans. 

By the death of Ladislaus, the emperor Frederick III. became sole possessor 
of the Austrian dominions, and under his rule they suffered from an unbroken 
series of calamities and misfortunes. His disposition was indolent and void of 
energy, and seemed formed rather to gratify in private life the refined taste of a 
dilletante, than face the storms of politics. He presented, in his single person, 
the strange combination of the most extreme autocratic pretensions, with the abuse 
of his understanding in the pursuit of exploded charlatanry. He discussed, with 
equal gravity and attention, plans of territorial acquisition and personal aggran- 



126 HISTORY OF HUNGARY, 

disement, and the mysteries of astrology and alchemy. Often, after having taken 
up arms for the realization of his ambitious projects, he suddenly abandoned the 
camp, and shut himself up in his laboratory to search mid the dross of the crucible 
for the philosopher's stone, or read in the motions of the stars the fate of himself 
and his courtiers. Had he bepn as warlike as he Vv^as covetous and avaricious, 
he would have proved a troublesome neighbour. The great feudatories in the 
interior of the empire were fortunately enabled to seciire the peace of his 
dominions without his countenance or assistance, aiid he employed himself in the 
formation of empty projects against Podiebrad of Bohemia and Mathias, the 
former of whom actually aspired to the imperial crown. 

His really weak and forlorn condition did not prevent Frederick from proclaim- 
ing himself king of Hungary, although the only actual ground for his claim was 
the possession of the Hungarian crown, and his hope that the youth of Mathias 
would render his kingdom an easy prey. Mathias had just returned from a 
successful expedition against the Turks when he received the news of his insolent 
assumption. He marched against him instantly, defeated him, and was already 
under the walls of Vienna, when the emperor sued for peace. It was granted, 
but only on condition that he should forthwith deliver up the crown ; but Mathias 
was generous enough to pay him in return for it 60,000 gold florins, being about 
the sum which had been advanced upon it. The king then led back his army 
against the Turks, and, uniting his forces with those of Venice, he took the town 
of Jaicza, in Bosnia, by assault. The whole of the conquered districts were 
placed under the government of Emeric, duke of Szapolyai. 

The satisfaction inspired by these successes Avas in some measure marred by the 
death of Catharine, the queen, without leaving any children. All the sovereigns 
of Europe hastened to express their sympathy with the king's bereavement. 
Numerous embassies were sent, laden Avith splendid presents, and bearing 
letters filled with expressions of condolement. Louis XI. of France distinguished 
himself above all others by the courtliness of his message, and the richness 
of his gifts. The short interval of peace which ensued was employed by 
Mathias in Transylvania, Moldavia, and Wallachia, all of which he reduced to 
.subjection. 

"We have now to refer to an episode in the life of this great king, which must 
meet Avith unqualified condemnation. We doubt much whether even the 
notions of the age in which he lived, the influence of education and early 
prejudices, can extenuate a crime so repugnant to the dictates of Christianity. 
He undertook a Avar, Avhich could in no Avay advance the interests of Hungary, 
and Avhich, in point of morality, could not defend its shameless cruelty and 
injustice even by the poor plea of necessity. He Avas urged by the pope to set 
out on a crusade against the Hussites, then the advanced guard of the continental 
reformation, and to stifle the voice of opinion, and the freedom of religious 
Avorship, by the weapons Avhich modern Rome has ever used so adroitly' — the 
sword and the faggot He undertook the task the more readily, because 



CRUSADE AGAINST THE HUSSITES. 127 

Podiebrad, the king of Bohemia, seemed disposed to take them under his 
protection,. At the diet of Agria, held in 1464, this war of extermination was 
formally declared, and Mathias took the field in person at the head of the 
Hungarian arm)'-, surrounded by the generals who had received their military 
training in the late conflicts with the Turks, — Enteric Szapolyai, an able and 
experienced officer, never at a loss for an expedient in the midst of the 
most unpromising circumstances, always cool and collected, — Blaise Magyar, 
a man of tremendous bodily strength and physical courage — no bad qiiali- 
fications when gunpowder was in . its infancy, — Paul Kinisi, the Murat of 
the Magyar army — fiery, brilliant, ostentatious, galloping to the charge with 
flashing sabre and in splendid costume, with kindling eye and brow of plea- 
sure, like a lover to meet his bride. Like Murat, too, he had been raised for 
his valour from the ranks, looked upon the camp as his home, and death upon 
the battle-field as the necessary and only fitting exit from the turmoil of the 
world. 

"Wherever such men led, success was sure to follow. The Catholics of Bohemia 
flew to arms to aid them, and the Hussites were everywhere compelled to give 
way before the terrible attacks of the " black legions," as the Hungarian troops 
were called. As in all religious wars, the most terrible atrocities were committed 
upon both sides ; and the Serbs, who followed the Magyars as auxiliaries, 
inflicted horrible devastation upon the districts through which they passed. 
In a few Aveeks, Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia were all conquered, and, 
although Podiebrad still retained part of Bohemia, Mathias caused himself to 
be crowned king of the remainder, at Olmutz, the capital of the first of the 
above provinces. 

In the meantime the sultan had been recruiting his strength, and again com- 
menced the war by laying siege to Negropont, which he stormed. The Venetians, 
in consternation, appealed to the Magyars for succour, but Mathias refused to 
interfere, unless they gave him up possession of Dalmatia. He now began to 
perceive his error in neglecting to promote the growth of a maritime power, and 
to regret that, in expending his energies and strength in useless war against the 
Hussites, he had given breathing time to a far more formidable enemy. 

HaAdng quelled some internal tumults, he turned his attention in right 
earnest to the expulsion of the Turks. By their erecting a strong fortress at 
Szabacs, upon the confines of Sclavonia and Croatia, the whole coimtry was laid 
open to them. It was absolutely necessary that this should be taken at all 
hazards. Mathias headed the besiegers in person, and the place was stormed 
after a desperate defence. This success was in a great measure owing to the per- 
sonal valour of the king. Before the assault, he went alone in a boat by torch- 
light on the river, disguised as a fisherman, and reconnoitred the j)lace. A ball 
struck the boat and extinguished the light, but he continued his observations, 
without the least sign of perturbation. He was the first to mount the breach, and 
animated his followers by his daring courage. The Turks were finally driven 



123 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

back to their own frontiers, and Mathias returned in triumph to Hungary, and 
celebrated his victory by his marriage with Beatrice of Naples, a woman devoured 
by pride and ambition. 

He then raised a dispute with Venice, as an excuse for wresting Dalmatia from 
her ; but no sooner had he ^et out, than the news arrived that the terrible Ali 
Bey was on the march towards the Hungarian frontiers with a large army. 
Mathias appealed to the nation to support him, and men of all ranks took up arms 
with the most fervid enthusiasm. Upon the plains of Kenyermezo, in Transyl- 
vania, then took place the most tremendous conflict recorded in the annals of 
Hungary. In the heat of the battle Bathori received six wounds, and fell under 
the hoofs of the horses. Paul Kinisi rushed forward, with a sword in each hand, 
and his armour broken, overthrowing every one who stood in his way, for the 
purpose of saving him. Making his way through the melee, he raised his fallen 
friend, and carried him out of danger. This exploit inspired the Hungarians 
Avith so much enthusiasm, that they precipitated themselves upon the Turks with 
such fury that they took to flight in a few minutes, their tents, baggage, and 
money-chest falling into the hands of the victors. In the midst of the rejoicings 
consequent upon this triumph, Kinisi was seen holding the body of a Turk be- 
tween his teeth, and two others in his arms, and thus executing the Hungarian 
national dance. 

Strengthened by this success, Mathias was enabled to detach the famous black 
huzzars to the assistance of his father-in-law, the king of Naples, who was 
threatened by the Mohammedans with another invasion. There was now 
a favourable opportunity for striking a heavy blow at the Turks, as two brothers 
were disputing the possession of the throne of the sultans. But, far from 
receiving any co-operation from the other sovereigns of Europe, Frederick of 
Austria invaded Hungary, and obliged Mathias to relinquish his designs against 
the Ottomans, and turn his attention to the defence of his own kingdom. An 
army was despatched against Vienna, under the command of Zelenyi and Szapo- 
lyai, which surrendered, after a short siege, in June, 1487. 

Mathias continued to reside in Vienna for a considerable length of time, to the 
great regret of the Hungarians. He there concluded a treaty for the marriage of 
his natural son, John, with Blanche, of Milan, as he had no children by either of 
his wives. He soon after lost his old friend and companion, Emeric Szapolyai, 
and after his death he himself began visibly to decline. In the presentiment that 
his end was approaching, he bestowed the government of Vienna upon Stephen 
Szapolyai, who possessed but little claim to his confldence, and set out, in 1489, to 
meet the diet at Buda, where his son John was declared heir presumptive to the 
throne. He then took his departure, with the intention of returning to Vienna, 
in order to become reconciled with the emperor Frederick, but on his way was 
carried off by an attack of apoplexy. 

Mathias Avas followed to the grave by the regrets, not of his own subjects only, 
but of the whole of Europe. His remains were transported with great pomp to 



CTIAllACTER OF MATHIAS CORVINUS. 129 

the royal vault in the church of Alba Regia, and an epitaph, of which he himself 
was the author, was placed over the tomb. 

" Mathias, jaceo rex, hac sub mole sepultus 
Testatur vires, Austria victa meas. 
Terror eram mundo ; metiiit me Coesar uterque ; 
Mors potuit tantumsola nocere mihi." * 

Mathias was both a great statesman and a great general, but he by no means 
possessed that foresight for which Louis the Great was distinguished. Unlike 
him, he never attempted to assimilate the countries which his arms had subdued, 
so as, out of various races, to form a powerful, united, and progressive empire. 
Louis' great aim was the foundation of commercial prosperity, the only one which 
rests on a sure and lasting basis. It was for this that he expended so much blood 
and treasure in the attempt to acquire and retain the provinces bordering on the 
Adriatic ; and had his successors followed up his line of policy, in all probability 
England would have found in Hungary a powerful rival in the race after material 
wealth in which she has been so successful, Mathias's genius was not of an 
equally practical turn. Whether it was owing to his supposed eastern origin, or 
the dazzling influence of his father's exploits, his efforts were oftener exerted to 
strike the imagination of his people by his prowess and magnificence, than to 
inspire them with a sense of their own strength and capabilities. His expeditions 
were all desultory, and often fruitless. The kingdom reaped no lasting benefit 
from any of his conquests or victories, because none of them Avere the result of a 
settled policy. He repelled the Turks more than once, but so repelled them, that 
in the following reign they were enabled to deal Hungary a blow from which she 
never recovered. He waged merciless war against the poor Hussite heretics, that 
he might gain the support of the Holy See, an acquisition which no really wise 
monarch ever valued, and no really powerful monarch ever needed. He humbled 
the house of Hapsburgh, but so humbled it that it was enabled to trample on 
the neck of the nation from his death down to the present time. His was 
not the steady light which shines more and more unto the perfect day, but 
a flash amid darkness, that shone only to blind and bewilder when it had 
disappeared. 

As might be expected from his frank and chivalrous character, he was the idol 
of the people. No monarch in our history can be compared to him. In personal 
bravery and love of adventure he resembled Richard Cociir de Lion, but lie 
had none of Richard's coarseness and ignorance. He was, above all things, a 
Magyar. He knew every fibre and corner of the national heart, and on this 
knowledge built up his popularity and glory. He gratified the pride and 
suppressed the jealousy of the nobles, by frequently convoking the diet, but was 
still adroit enough to retain every particle of power In his own hands. He won the 

* '* Here I, king Mathias, lie buried beneath this tomb. Conquered Austria attests my 
strength. I was the terror of the world ; the two Ca;sars feared me, and Death alone could 
subdue me." 



130 HISTORY OF HUNGAHY. 

affection of the common people by his never allowing lowness of origin to stand 
in the way of merit ; he never forgot the obscurity of his own, for he knew that 
therein lay the greatest glory of his house. Above all, he was famed for his 
strict justice, so much so, that, when he died, men said, that " Justice was 
now gone." 

From the time of Louis the Great, no Hungarian prince had ever displayed so 
much vigour in his administration. Little by little the nobles had been trenching 
on the prerogatives of the crown, and the great ones had gone far towards break- 
ing up the equality which the constitution had established between all men of the ' 
order, by procuring the division of it into two parts — status and ordines. The 
status comprised the prelates and magnates who sat in the upper chamber ; the 
ordines, or second chamber, included the nobles of the counties or the delegates 
of the towns to which Sigismond had granted the privilege of electing representa- 
tives in order to counterbalance the power of the nobility. Mathias, in order to 
flatter the grandees, retained these distinctions. It was in his reign that the 
powers and diities of the palatine w^ere for the first time accurately defined. He 
was to govern the state during the absence or minority of the king, or during an 
interregnum, and his emoluments amounted only to 6,000 florins. The king's 
own revenues were, as might be expected, not very large, and were raised by the 
custom-house, the mint, and the contributions of the five free towns, amounting 
in all to nearly 400,000 ducats. This would have fallen far short of supporting his 
brilliant court, or supplying him with the expenses of his frequent wars, the 
means of rewarding and encouraging literary and scientific men, if he had not 
been aided by a subsidy which the diet voted and the nobility raised among 
themselves, but the king took good care never to show himself exacting, and 
thus worked upon the Magyar generosity to his own great advantage. 

Sigismond had introduced into the military service of the country a more regu- 
lar organization. By his arrangement, each county was bound to furnish a cer- 
tain contingent of cavalry in proportion to the number of the inhabitants, amongst 
whom peasants, not noble, were admitted, and these received pay from the state. 
Mathias brought this system nearer to perfection, and was first amongst European 
monarchs to establish a regular army — a measure which gave a heavy blow to the 
military spirit of the nobility. As soon as the magnates found the duty of de- 
fending the country taken off their hands, they but too gladly betook themselves 
to the luxurious ease of their castles. The famous Black Legion, principally 
composed of Bohemians and Rascians, who gave to the Magyar army one of its 
most distinguished generals, Jaksics, carried terror wherever it showed itself, not 
less by its valour, however, than by its ferocity. Mathias, who was an enthu- 
siastic admirer of every thing belonging to the ancients, endeavoured to model 
the discipline and tactics of the whole army upon those of the Greeks and Romans. 
The Black Legion cost the state 100,000 ducats; a hussar received forty ducats a 
year, and the entire army 1,060,000 ducats a year. 

One of the highest proofs of capacity afforded by Mathias was, however, his 



INTERNAL ADMINISTHATION OF MATHIAS. 131 

legal reforms. Besides tlie tribunals whicK sat quarterly, he established another 
permanent one to afford relief in cases of urgent necessity, and the decrees of 
which could be enforced even against the nobles, who claimed the right of being 
tried by the king alone. This was styled the personalis presentiae regiae, and 
answered in many respects to our King's Bench, as, by a fiction of law, the king 
was always supposed to be present in the person of the judge. He took vigorous 
measures to restrain and punish the robbery and brigandage of the great barons, 
who took possession of the property of their weaker neighbours without scruple, 
and upon the most frivolous pretences ; as they refused to acknovvfledge the 
jurisdiction of the ordinary courts, the unfortunate owners seldom had much 
chance of its recovery, whilst the aggresssor, secure in his fortified castle, laughed 
at their remonstrances. 

The higher classes in Hungary, in the reign of Mathias, stimulated by his 
example, began rapidly to acquire a love for lavish display. They showed no 
favour to commerce or manufactures except in so far as they supplied splendid 
dresses and equipages, harness, carriages, and arms, and delicacies of the table. 
This fatal tendency to extravagance was mainly due to Mathias himself. For the 
embellishment of his sumptuous palaces, and to do honour to the fine arts, he 
invited painters, goldsmiths, sculptors, and artisans of every trade from every 
country in Europe to take up their residence in his capital. But these strangers 
left but few traces of their stay in the diffusion of skill or a love of art amongst 
the Hungarians. They worked zealously for the king, to acquire fame and 
money for themselves, but as soon as he was gone they took their departure also. 

The palace of Corvinus at Buda, of which the foundations had been laid by 
Sigismond, was radiant with ornaments of gold and silver ; and the bishop of 
Castello, the Pope's legate, stated that fifty carriages could not contain the royal 
plate, all of massive gold, and set with precious stones. The outward pomp dis- 
played at fetes and ceremonies corresponded with the internal magnificence of the 
houses. When John Pruis was sent as an ambassador to France, he took with 
him three hundred horses of the same size and colour, ridden by young men belong- ■ 
ing to the first families in Hungary, clothed in scarlet and sparkling with diamonds. 
" See what a display these nobles make," exclaims Fessler, "just before the disso- 
lution of their empire." It seemed as if Mathias foresaw that he would be the last 
great king of Hungary, and determined that her sun should at least set in glory. It 
would be in vain to attempt, within the limits of our space, to give an accurate 
idea of the gorgeous splendour of the royal palace at Buda. Some of the first 
masters of Italy superintended its erection, or were employed upon the paintings 
that adorned its walls. It was there the king loved to retire from the fatigues of 
war or business, to revel amongst the creations of art, or to hang over the classic 
remains of the authors of antiquity. Having a passionate veneration for the 
works of the ancient Greeks and Romans, he never grew weary of reading them, 
and surrounded himself with statues modelled after their best sculptures ; and at 
the great court festivals his guests found themselves surrounded by figures illus- 

li 2 



132 



HISTOIIY OF HUNGARY. 




HIS EITORTS TO PROMOTE LEARNING. 133 

trating by their costume the mythology, customs, and traditions of the two great 
nations whose mutilated remains still excite the admiration and astonishment of 
mankind. 

Mathias was not only a patron of scholars, but a scholar himself. Unlike many 
of the grandees of our own day, who imagine that their conventional rank can 
confer honour upon letters,, he felt that the pursuits of literature would reflect 
lustre upon himself. Besides his native tongue, he spoke Latin, French, German, 
and Italian, with ease and fluency, and was familiar with the writings of Virgil, 
Cicero, Horace, Lucian, Plhiy, Liyy, and Sallust. He carried on correspondence 
with the greatest men of his day. He Avas the intimate friend of Bandini, of 
Ficini, and of Lorenzo de Medici. In laying the foundation of the great library 
of Buda, he left a striking monument of his wisdom and greatness. It contained 
the richest collection of oriental works that could then be found in the known 
world. Thirty copyists, of great skill in penmanship, were constantly travelling 
from one part of Europe to another for the collection or transcription of the rarest 
and most valuable books to enrich the king's collection. 

Besides the universities of Buda, founded by Sigismond, Mathias erected 
another at Presburg, and commenced at Pesth the construction of a vast edifice 
capable of containing 40,000 pupils, the professors of which were to be supported 
by the state. It was by his direction, also, that the first printing-press was 
erected in Hungary, in the year 1470, under the management of an Italian. But 
in spite of all this patronage, the number of native Hungarians who achieved a 
position of eminence in literature and science was by no means great. One fact 
alone may serve to explain this seemingly strange phenomenon. No writer ever 
made use of the national language of the country. Latin was the tongue of the 
learned, and no fruit ever resulted from the teaching of it, as it was not under- 
stood by the masses. Science thus remained the exclusive possession of the few ; 
and the best chronicles of Hungary, and in particular of the reign of Corvinus, are 
to be found in the works of two Italians whom he invited to his court, and who, in 
ponderous folios, and in a dead language, celebrated the glories of the nation, and 
heaped flattery upon their patron and his family. 



CHAPTER XIIL 

, liAPISJjATJS IT, AND LOUIS II.=— PEASANT WAE AND IXJEKISH CONQUEST. 

A.D. 1489—1526. 

The only thing that was wanting to make up the sum of the good fortune of 
Mathias, was to have left a son to succeed him in the kingdom to which his father 
and himself had given so much prosperity and glory. This failure of legitimate 
issue produced, as might have been expected, five different pretenders to the 
crown. The first was John Corvinus, the natural son of the late king. He was 
supported by a powerful party among the nobility though he could put 
forward no reason in favour of his claim, except his father's merit. The second 
was Frederick, emperor of Germ.any, whose ambassadors loudly declared that the 
kingdom could not be refused to him, or his son Maximilian, without manifest 
injustice. He founded his right upon the treaty which he had entered into with 
Mathias at the period of the restoration of the crown, in Avhich the latter declared, 
that, if he died without leaving legitimate ofispring, the kingdom should devolve 
upon him or his heirs. No regard was paid to this claim by the diet. The 
ambassadors were told that it belonged to the living and not to the dead to 
dispose of thrones ; that their votes were free ; and that before Frederick insisted 
upon the performance of their promises towards him, he should fulfil his to them ; 
that those which had been made to him, in order to recover the crown Avhich he 
unjustly detained, might be compared to those made by a man unlawfully 
imprisoned, in order to regain his liberty.* 

The ambassadors of the king of Poland, whose son Albert was the fourth 
claimant, assumed a much more moderate tone. They confined themselves to 
dwelling upon the close proximity of Poland to Hungary, the alliance which had 
of old existed between the two countries, their power when united, and the 
precedents afi'orded by accession of many kings of Hungary to the Polish throne, 
and vice versa, and they concluded by ofi'ering all the force at their master's 
command for'the defence of the kingdom. The answer of the diet to these was 
much more favourable, and, in fact, held out some hope of success. 

Beatrice of Arragon, the widow of Mathias, ofi"ered to decide the matter right 
speedily, by fixing on a husband who should reign jointly with herself, and to 
bring to the support of the nation the whole power of her father, Ferdinand, king 
of Naples, 

* Bonf. Decad. ix. lib. 9. 



REVOLT OF THE PEASANTRY. 135 

But none brouglit to bear on the electors arguments' so powerful as Ladislaus, 
king of Bohemia,— blood relationship, th& proximity of the two kingdoms to 
each other, the advantages that would result from their union under the same 
chief, the great abilities of Ladislaus himself, and though last, by no means 
weakest, rich presents to the principal magnates. The suffrages were almost all 
in his favour ; and a secret message was sent him, requesting him to present 
himself in Hungary, so as to anticipate his competitors, and promising that vipon 
his appearance they would at once proclaim him king. He complied, and 
Avas crowned at Buda with more than ordinary solemnity. 

The complaints of the unsuccessful candidates were loud and vehement, and by 
the intrigues which they set on foot they reduced the kingdom to the last 
extremity of weakness and disorder. One faction rallied round John Corvinus, 
but their own quarrels ruined them. Beatrice wished, at all hazards, to marry 
Ladislaus, and so clamorous did she become on that head, that he at last thought 
it best to comply. 

Albert, the brother of Ladislaus, took arms to avenge his rejection, invaded 
Hungary, and laid siege to Cassovia. He was compelled to raise the siege, but 
not till Silesia had been ceded to him, on condition that he desisted from his 
pretensions. Maximilian followed his example, retook most of the Austrian 
towns which had been captured by Mathias, and some even in Lower Hungary. 
The former were left in his hands, and Vienna was surrendered to him, but he 
was compelled to deliver up the remainder of his conquests.""'- 

A revolution in Turkey about this time deposed Bajazet; and Selim, his 
successor, being beaten by the Hungarians, was about to agree to a truce for three 
years, when Thomas Bakocz, the cardinal-archbishop of Strigonia, arrived in 
Hungary, bringing a bull from the Pope, calling upon the Hungarians to enter 
upon a crusade against the Ottomans. Some have ascribed this act of the 
cardinal to an overflowing zeal for the honour of the church and the spread of the 
Christian faith ; while others have alleged, and vWtli greater appearance of truth, 
that it was owing rather to a desire to be revenged upon the nobility for the 
frequent insults he had received from them on account of his low birth, as well as 
to the great influence v/hich the successful issue of the enterprise would throw 
into his hands, particularly as he was already casting his eyes upon the triple 
crown. 

At the call of the legate the peasants flew to arms, but this time it was not to 
march against the Turks. They declared that they had been ruined by the 
tyranny and exactions of the aristocracy, and that, as the nobles were more 
dangerous than the infidels, upon them would they Vv^reak their vengeance. They 
chose for their motto, " God and Liberty," and assem.bling in im.mense crowds 
from every side, swore to exterminate their ancient masters. This revolt was the 
war of the peasant against his seigneur — of hunger against exacting riches 

* Hist, des Revol. de Hongrie, liv. i. p. 33. 



136 



HlSTOllY OF IIUNGAKY. 



These men of labour and -misery, whose life was a bitter cup of sorrow and trial, 
were the brothers in misfortune of the followers of William Longbeard, of Wat 
Tyler, and Jack Cade, Burdened with taxes, incapable of possessing hereditary 
property, daily exposed to the incursions of the enemy, and the no less terrible 
spoliation of their own landlords, they at length lost patience. 

The king was feeble, inert, and cowardly, and had no resources within himself 
for any emergency. The nobles seemed to have lost their ancient military 
prowess, and many fled in terror to take refuge in the walled towns. There was 
no union, no organization, no foresight. Everything seemed to promise an easy 




TORTURE OF DOZSA. 



victory to the peasantry. Bakocz appeared to be the only one who had resolution 
enough to face the crisis, and put himself at the head of the nobility. 

George Dozsa, a Szekler peasant, a straightforward, blunt, and sincere man, 
and full of courage, had been named by the cardinal commander-in-chief of the 
crusading forces, or, as it now appeared, of the insurgents ; but a priest named 
Lorenzo, or Lawrence, was the soul of the insurrectionary movement. Though 
devoted to the interests of the people, he sought by his eloquence to induce the 
nobles to listen to their demands, and at least endeavour to come to an amicable 
understanding before proceeding to open force. 



CODIFICATION OF THE LAWS. 137 

His efforts were unsuccessful ; and, in a sanguinary engagement which soon 
afterwards took place, the peasants, though the artillery made lanes in their ranks, 
were victorious. The aristocracy perceived that its existence was at stake, and 
strained every nerve in preparations to continue the war. In a second battle, 
near the town of Temesvar, the steady discipline of the nobles triumphed over 
the rude and untrained valour of the rebels, who were totally defeated. Dozsa 
was taken alive by the victors, and in that awful hour, when all hope of mercy or 
relief was gone, he showed that he had a soul worthy of a higher station and a 
better fate. There was no pity for the base-born serf who had dared to rise up 
in arms against his lords. " To-morrow," said they, taunting him, " your majesty 
shall be crowned, but it will be with an iron crown, made by the blacksmith ; 
your sceptre will weigh five pounds ; your throne, too, will be large, and you 
shall recline upon it at your ease. You will then have need of a stout heart." 
Dozsa's face blanched for a moment, as he heard of the frightful punishment that 
awaited him ; but, recovering himself quickly, he exclaimed — addressing the 
crowd whom he saw shuddering at his approaching doom — " Come back 
to-morrow, you miserable slaves, and see if I shrink in the midst of my sufferings ! 
If a single groan escapes my lips, may my name be covered with eternal infamy ! ' 
On the following day he was placed almost naked on a burning throne, and his 
head was encircled by a crown of red-hot iron. Fourteen of his followers had 
been kept without food for several days, and were then brought into his presence, 
and while he was yet living the flesh was torn from his bones and cast to them 
that they might satiate their hunger. " To it hounds !" was his bitter exclama- 
tion, " ye are of my own rearing!" And thus he died, enduring all with a 
stoical firmness that called forth the admiration even of his enemies. 

The peasants were slaves before this revolt, but after it the yoke was laid 
heavier upon them than ever. They were deprived of the liberty which they had 
previously possessed of passing from the domains of one lojd to those of another;* 
they had no longer any tribunals before which they could plead their cause, except 
those of the barons themselves, who were often parties in the suit. 

The short interval of tranquillity which followed tliese slorms was taken advan- 
tage of to present, in writing, to the king a collection of the customary laws which 
had been in force time out of memory, answering to the common law of England. 
One of the judges, named Verboczi, compiled and divided them into three parts, 
and called his work " Opus Tripartitum." The body of the Hungarian laws is 
contained in two volumes, of which this was the first, arranged according to the 
subject matter. The other is made up of the royal decrees. The whole was 
entitled " Jus Consuetudinarium Regni Hungarise," or the Common Law of the 
kingdom of Hungary ; a title which applies equally well to both, since the first, or 
the tripartite work, contains only the ancient customs, and the decrees of the kings, 
contained in the second, are in reality made with the consent of the two cham- 

* The rigour of this was somewhat softened in 1556. 



138 HISTOEY OF HUNGARY. 

bers, and conformably to the principles of the common law. It is only by an 
occasional reference to this work that a correct idea can be given of the merits 
and bearings of the great controversy which has been going on between Hungary 
and the house of Hapsburgh now for full three hundred years. 

This code was presented to Ladislaus in 1514, at a diet assembed in Buda. It 
was there solemnly confirmed by the king and the chambers.^' 

Ladislaus did not long survive the performance of this most praiseworthy act 
of his reign. He was born for a quiet, tranquil life, and always left the command 
of his armies to his generals ; but he was, nevertheless, kind-hearted, equitable in 
his decisions, and generous to a faiilt. The diet, therefore, decreed the succession 
to his son Louis, Avho succeeded his father in 1516, when bu.t ten years of age, to 
the thrones both of Hungary and Bohemia. In 1521 he assumed the administra- 
tion, and celebrated his nuptials with Mary, the sister of Francis I. and Charles V., 
to whom he had been betrothed some years previously by the dexterous manage- 
ment of Maximilian I., who, at the same time, obtained the hand of Mary, Louis' 
sister, for Francis, thus rendering the succession of the house of Hapsburgh to 
the Hungarian crown doubly sure. Owing to the youth, inexpex'ience, and 
neglected education of the monarch, both kingdoms began to suffer all the evils 
attendant upon an unstable and divided government — evils which were aggra- 
vated by the poverty and discontents of the Hungarian peasantry, and the quarrels 
and licentiousness of the nobility. His ministers could with difficulty maintain 
tranquillity in Bohemia, and, what is less wonderful, notwithstanding all their 
efforts, could not prevent the spread of the reformed doctrines, nor even perform 
the easier task of repelling the inroads of the Turks. Not that Louis himself was 
wanting in amiable qualities, or that there was in his character any defect so 
striking as to foreshadow the fate that awaited him. His stature was tall, and his 
appearance, even in youth, was majestic; his intellect was strong, and under 
better cultivation might have rendered him independent of the bad counsellors 
who surrounded him from his childhood ; and his disposition was full of gentle- 
ness and generosity. He had in him all the materials of which a great man and 
a great king are supposed to be made, had it pleased Providence, so often appa- 
rently severe, but so surely ever wise and ever just, to have assigned him a longer 
reign, that he might have shown himself worthy of a better fate. 

But even on the day on which he ascended the throne, the cloud from which 
the thunderbolt was to issue and crush him, was hanging in the sky. Ever since 
the reign of Bajazet the Second, but particularly under the short but brilliant 
one of the Sultan Selim, the Turkish power had been rapidly advancing. A 
striking instance of the vanity of human greatness is afforded by the fact that the 



* In this work the animus of the nohlesse against the unfortunate peasantry shows itself. 
In part iii. tit. 25, referring to the measiu-es depri-vmg the peasants of the right of seeking 
relief from any tribunal save that of their lords, the following passage occurs : "Hujusmodi 
libertatem propter seditionem et tumultuarium adversus imiversam nobUitatem, sub nomine 
cruciatEe, ductu cujusdam, scelerati Georgii Szekelii, insurrectionem, amiserunt." 



WAR WITH THE TURKS. 139 

empire, now so feeble that it requires all the eflforts of European diplomacy to 
keep it from falling to pieces through sheer inanition, should, at no more distant 
period than the sixteenth century, have been the terror and the bugbear of 
Christendom, should have single-handed carried on aggressive wars against all 
the nations of Europe, and have furnished a rock against which the chivalry and 
fanaticism of the ablest warriors of the west foamed, fretted, and were broken. 
The religious zeal of the Mussulmans was then still at the height of its fervour, 
and it was animated and supported by centuries of great martial traditions, and 
found a rich harvest of conquest and glory in the discord and dissensions of their 
enemies. Christianity had lost among the Latins the binding power which, five 
centuries before, had driven 600,000 warriors to the maddest enterprise which 
human folly has ever conceived. Enthusiasm, no doubt, still burned as brightly 
in the breasts of many individuals as ever, but it had lost the power of combining, 
for a common object, those whose language, race, traditions, and desires, were 
widely different. The art of war, too, was still in its infancy. Gunpowder, 
though partially in use, had not yet seen the grave close over valour, and in the 
heady and tumultuous conflicts, by which the fate of kingdoms was then decided, 
the training, skill, experience and dexterity of the veteran janizzary, were but too 
<5ften more than a match for the heavy panoply in which the Christian warriors 
encased themselves ; and when we remember that to all these advantages were 
added the force and union derived from the controlling power of a single despotic 
will, and that, by rare good fortune, for a long series of years no sovereign 
ascended the throne who did not possess passing courage, energy, and skill, we 
can hardly wonder at the success which attended the Ottoman arms, both in Europe 
and Asia. Selim II. subdued Armenia, overran and huinbled Persia, reduced 
the warlike tribes of Arabia, at least, to partial subjection, defeated the Mamelukes 
in two campaigns, annexed Egypt and Syria to his dominions. He then prepared 
to turn his arms v/estward, and in order that he might extend his empire in the 
Mediterranean and the Archipelago, built and equipped a fleet fully able to 
compete for victory with the maritime forces of the west — an achievement 
displaying no ordinary ability, when we remember that at the siege of Constanti- 
nople, the only naval armament which Mahomet II. produced for the defence 
of the straits of the Hellespont against the fleet sent to the relief of the city, was a 
crowd of open and unwieldy boats, which the Christian sailors broke and dispersed 
by the mere force of their motion through the water. He next turned his arms 
against Rhodes, as one of the bulwarks of Christendom, but was baffled by the 
valour of the knights of St. John, and was then about to try his fortune on the 
side of the Danube, when his schemes were suspended by his untimely death. 
They were revived by his son, Solyman the Magnificent, who, to all his father's 
bravery and activity, united learning and accomplishments which no Ottoman 
prince had ever -boasted, and no Mussulman since the days of Al-Raschid. 
Immediately after his accession to the throne, he sent an embassy to Louis, 
offering to continue the treaty of peace which his father had entered into, but 



I-IO HISTORY OF HUNGAKY. 

upon conditions so harsh, and couched in language so imperious and menacing, 
that the king, either carried away by youthful ardour, or instigated by bad 
counsels, maltreated the ambassadors and drove them from his presence. Solyman, 
but too glad of the excuse for recommencing hostilities, immediately made 
preparations to avenge the insult, and crossing the frontier, laid waste Ra§cia, 
Sclavonic!, Moldavia, and Wallachia, and, worse than all, took Belgrade, the key of 
Hungary, which Hunyadi had so valiantly defended against the assaults of the 
bravest of the Ottomans, led on by Mahomet II. After this achievement, 
however, which took place on the 29th of August, 1521, he returned to Constan- 
tinople with the intention of making another attack upon Rhodes, which proved 
successful. After a short interval, during which he was occupied in suppressing 
an insurrection in Egypt, he again turned his attention to the conquest of 
Hungary, a project which was favoured by the dissensions of the Christian 
princes, and by the indecision, maladministration, and licentiousness which 
prevailed at the Hungarian court. He passed the winter of 1525 near the 
frontiers, making preparations for the invasion. 

The young king in vain looked around him for assistance. Charles V., the 
emperor of Germany, and Francis I., of France, were engaged in that long and 
bloody contest for the crown of the Ceesars, which ended in the overthrow and 
capture of the latter upon the bloody field of Ptivia, and all the minor states of 
Europe were breathlessly watching the tremendous game which these two master- 
players had in hand. It was in vain to call upon the pope to preach for another 
crusade. The Church had then more to fear from enemies within her own bosom 
than from the fiercest onslaughts of Paynim or pagan. Luther had begun to preach 
against indulgences, and Germany was labouring in the throes of a great religious 
revolution. The Holy Father could oflfer nothing but his prayers and blessing, 
and these he sent ; and from Henry VIII. came a sum of money. 

Louis, having failed in all his eftbrts to obtain foreign aid, turned his attention 
to the internal resources of the kingdom, and ordered a general rising of the 
nobles and their vassals, by sending round a bloody sabre to every house, in 
accordance .with the ancient Scythian custom. The rendezvous was fixed at 
Tholne, and hither the prelates and magnates repaired with small and badly equipped 
troops, and with scanty contributions in money towards the expenses of the war. 
The regular army, so large and Avell-organized in the time of Mathias, was now 
but a shadow of its former self. When a muster was made of all the forces, there 
were scarce found twenty-four thousand men in all, undisciplined and badly 
officered, to meet the two hundred thousand strong, flushed with victory, 
whom Solyman was leading across the frontier. The nobles made light of the 
disparity, and in all the pride of folly swore roundly that the Turks would fly at 
the first onset; and this false confidence was encouraged by Paul Tomori, who, 
from the humble rank of a Franciscan monk, had arisen to the archbishopric of 
Colocza, and who, owing to his success in a few trifling skirmishes with the Otto- 
mans, was, in conjunction with George, count of Scepuze, appointed general of the 



IJAITLE OF MOHACS. 



141 



forces. John Szapolyai, the waywode of Transjlvauia, as well as some others, 
led a body of cavalry to the aid of the Hungarians, but, owing to the precipitation 
of the leaders, was never able to come up with them until it Avas too late. 

Stephen Verboczi, an experienced soldier, feared the issue of an engagement, 
and strongly advised the king not to risk his person in the field, but shut himself 
up in the citadel of Buda, where, in case of reverse, he could abide in safety ; but 
this prudent counsel was scouted by the nobles, who declared that _^if they could 
not fight beneath the banner of the monarch, they would not fight at all, Inde- 




DEATH OF LOUIS IN THE MABSH. 



cision for a long time reigned in the camp. The more prudent wished to wait 
for reinforcements, and not to risk the fate of the kingdom in a single action 
where the odds were so largely against them; but this was met by charges of 
cowardice and pusillanimity ; and at last the news arrived that the Turkish army, 
after taking Peter Varadin, were encamped on the plains of Mohacs, a town lying 
between the Danube and the Drave, in the neighbourhood of the Five Churches ; 
and it was unanimously resolved to offer battle. The two armies lay in the 
presence of each other for three days without the occurrence of anything beyond 
light skirmishes, in which the Hungarians always had the advantage. The Turks 



142 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

wished to fatigue them, and, if possible, to outflank them. Paul Tomori, anxious 
to take advantage of a movement made by them -with this object, assured the 
king that .the time for the attack had now arrived, and that victory Avas certain. 
Broderics, the chancellor of the kingdom, advised him to await the arrival of the 
Transylvanian corps, and the -Croats under#Christopher Frangepan, but in vain. 
" Sire," said Perenzi, bishop of Great Varadin, " twenty-six thousand Hungarians 
will now fall martyrs for the faith, under the conduct of our dear brother, Paul 
Tomori. There remains only one thing more to be desired, — that the chancellor 
Broderics, who is known at Rome, should survive the carnage, and plead before the 
pope and cardinals for their canonization." At last, on the 29th of August, 1526, 
Paul Tomori gave the signal for action, after placing the king in the rear, 
surrounded by a guard of chosen cavaliers. The army advanced to the attack 
with loud shouts and beating of drums ; and the cavalry charging with their usual 
impetuosity, overthrew and routed the first of the enemy's battalions, and com- 
mitted such havoc, that Andrew Bathori flew to the king to announce that the 
Turks were fl-ying, and that the victory Avas won ; to request him to advance with 
his reserve, and aid the conquerors in the pursuit. Louis, full of youthful ardour, 
obeyed the imprudent summons, and galloped forward; but only to find the 
flower of his army broken by the main body of the Turks, commanded by Solyman 
in person, and flanked by three hundred pieces of cannon, which vomited death 
amongst the ranks of the Christians. The right wing, unable to bear up 
under the storm of shot, turned and fled. The left continued the engagement 
with unshaken courage, charging up within ten paces of the batteries, in the 
chivalric, but vain, attempt to storm them. At last, blinded by the smoke and 
dust, and weakened by the incessant carnage, the survivors gave way ; and in 
attempting to return across a marsh were engulphed by hundreds. The Turks, 
astonished by the resistance that had been offered them, could scarcely believe in 
their victory, and it was not till after hours of silence that they were fully con- 
vinced that the Hungarian army was indeed annihilated. Paul Tomori did not 
survive his defeat, and with him seven bishops, twenty-eight of the higher nobility, 
and 22,000 men were left dead upon the field. ■^' 

As soon as the king found that the day was lost, he reluctantly rode off the 
field. On arriving at the village of Czetze, he was stopped in a marshy plain 
watered by a rivulet ; a Silesian nobleman, who was mounted on a light steed, 
passed without difiiculty, and Louis instantly attempted to follow, but his horse, 
being heavy and loaded with caparisons, sank in the morass, and in struggling to 
reach the opposite bank fell back on his rider. The noble fiew to his assistance, 
drew him from the slough, and unbuckled his armour, but he was mortally bruised, 
and expired in a few moments. The Turks came on rapidly ; the body was cast 

* Knolles's History of the Turks, ai-t. " Solyman the Magnificent," passim, Historie of 
the Troubles in Hungary (London, 1600), Histoh-e des Revolutions de Hongrie, liv. i., 
p. 35 ; an account abridged from Bradeuth, -who was present in the battle. 



PLUNDER OF BUDA. 143 

aside and lost, and was not discovered till two months after, when it w^as buried 
at Alba Regia.* 

Immediately after the battle, Solyman marched upon Buda, which was surren- 
dered to him without striking a blow, and while encamped upon the Danube the 
heads of the seven bishops who had fallen at Moh^cs were presented to him with 
great pomp and ceremony, and on learning the names of the owner of each, he 
passed remarks upon them according to what he had previously heard of their 
character and ability. He stayed at Buda about twenty days, and during the 
whole Ox uha- period squadrons of cavalry overran the whole kingdom, plundering 
and burning the houses, and slaughtering the inhabitants without distinction of 
age or sex. Such was the terror inspired by their atrocities, that mothers killed 
their children, and husbands their wives to prevent them falling into their hands 
alive. Wherever they passed they left nothing behind but a howling -waste 
without food or shelter for living creature. Before Solyman took his departure, 
Buda was plundered, the splendid library of Mathias Corvinus was committed to 
the flames, and the bronze statues of marvellous workmanship w^hich adorned his 
palace were carried to Constantinople, and there cast into cannon, and two hun- 
dred thousand Hungarians were led into captivity.f 

The battle of Mohatz was even more disastrous to Hungary than that of Flod- 
den Field to Scotland. It decided her fate. She had been for a long time envied 
by Austria, and looked upon as a legitimate prey by some of her own nobles. To 
the former she fell a victim. With this fatal day the bright pages of her history 
end. The record henceforth is that of a contest between liberty and power, be- 
tween law and the arbitrary will of the monarch, between the defenders of the con- 
stitution to which more than fifty kings had sworn, and the adherents of a 
foreign ruler, whose language, race, and sympathies were not those of the nation- 
over whom he was called to reign. 

* Coxe's Hist, of the House of Austria, chap. 33. 
t Knolles'g Hist, of the Turks, 



CHAPTER XIV. 



FEKDINAND I. AND JOHN SZAPOLYAT. 



A.B. 1526—1564. 

The Hungarian monarchy was essentially electiye. The right to choose their 
own ruler was a right of Avhich the diet never lost sight. The crown had, upon 
the death of the sovereign, it is true, in more than one instance been placed on 
the head of his son and heir; but no claim to the succession based upon inheritance 
was ever for a moment acknowledged, and in their treatment of their king, the 
Hungarians took every means to prevent the idea gaining ground that he was 
anything more than the first amongst a nation of equals. Upon the real nature of 
the constitution at the period when the house of Hapsburgh first ascended the 
throne, the dispute which has raged between it and the nation for three hundred 
years altogether turns. The history of Hungary since the battle of Mohacs is, in 
reality, as we have already remarked, the history of this dispute ; and it is only 
by setting out with a clear knowledge of the people's rights and sovereign's 
duties when it commenced, that the reader can judge between the contending 
parties. This is to be found in the " Opus Tripartitum," to which we have 
already referred. It is there expressly provided, though in general terms, that 
all measures should be submitted to the assembly of the people, and receive the 
sanction of their votes ; and, if proposed by the people, should in like manner be 
submitted to the prince for his approbation, before they could have the force of 
law ; but a special clause is inserted to define the meaning of the word people as 
the po2nd us of the Romans, the prelates, magnates, barons, and other nobles, and 
expressly excluding the misera plehs, the serfs and others not noble, from taking 
any benefit under the constitution. ■•' 

The laAvs bound the king even in a greater degree than the people, as the 
most prominent of their makers and promulgators, and he was compelled to 
answer before the palatine to any charge or complaint which might be made 
against him ; the only instance of royal responsibility to the claims of subjects to 
be met with, we believe, in the history of any modern country, except Poland. 
He was held liable, also, for the repair of all wrongs or damage caused by his 

* " Nomine autem Popiili, hoc in loco, intellige solum modo Dominos, Prelatos Barones 
et alios Magnates atque qiioslibet nobiles." Part iii. tit. 4. In this appears the worst 
feature of the Huneaiian constitution. 



THE OI*tJS TltlPARTITL'M. 145 

officers or by his peasants,-' and he was bound to provide for the defence of the 
kingdom against all its enemies or oppressors out of the revenues of the domains 
of the crown ; but in case these did not suffice, it devolved upon the prelates, 
barons, and the nobility, and all others of every rank and condition, to make up 
the deficiency. And if at any time such an emergency should arise, that the 
ordinary resources of the kingdom would not be*- sufficient to meet it, then a 
general diet of all the Magyars was convoked in the plain of Rakos, and any 
extraordinary contribution which might be called for was granted, but only by 
the unanimous consent of the whole of the prelates and nobles ; and in order to 
guard against the influence of faction or favouritism upon the king, it was 
expressly ordained, that if any particular county, of its own accord, granted any 
supplies or subsidy above and beyond what was voted by the general assembly, in 
the ordinary grant of the chamber, the nobles of that county should be held 
guilty of perjury and treachery, and should be cut off from all intercourse and 
communication with the other nobles of the kingdom. The palatine, as the first 
personage in the realm after the king, had a right to the first vote at the election, 
and was, by virtue of liis office, general and commander-in-chief of all the 
armies of the kingdom, and whenever any difference arose between the kino- and 
the nobility, he was bound to act as mediator and endeavour to reconcile them. 
The king had not the right of making war, or of introducing foreign troops into 
Hungary, without the express consent of the assembly, but was bound to use 
every endeavour to keep peace and make others keep it. He was prohibited 
from calling upon any freeman to answer to any charge beyond the boundaries of 
the kingdom, even before the ordinary and lawful judges, and from condemning 
any one upon any accusation whatsoever, until he had been indicted and con- 
victed with all the necessary legal forms. He was also expressly forbidden 
to commit to the hands of foreigners any charge, dignity, office, or appointment, 
and was bound to place in command of the fortresses Hungarians only, who had 
distinguished themselves by their services. Four of the privileges of the nobility 
are, in this summary, singled out from a host of others as of prime imjiortance, 
the observance of which is strictly insisted upon : — • 

First, that no matter upon what charge, complaint, or accusation, no gentleman 
inohilis) was liable to arrest or detention, until he had been tried and convicted 
by the ordinary tribunals. 

Secondly, the nobility were subject to no authority save that of the king 
lawfully crowned. 

Thirdly, they possessed the power of enjoying without let or hindrance all the 
revenues of their lands and hereditaments, situate within the boundaries of their 
lordships, and were exempt from all conditional service, and above all from rent, 
tribute, or tax. 

* Jobbagiones, a barbarous vvord, originally applied to all the nob'es of the kingdom, but 
afterwards to the scifs cii the kino;'s domains. 



lis HTSTORY OP HtlKGARY. 

Fonrdily, tliey liad the power of resisting by force of arms fitly attempt 
on the part of the king to destroy, modify, or iti any way interfere with the 
rights and privileges of tlie nobility, as set fori,h in the general decree of Andrew 
II., surnamed Hierosolyinitanus, without being liable to any charge of treason 
or felony. 

• The oath by which the kings at their election swore to observe these articles is 
worthy of translation. •'' " We swear by the living God, and by the blessed 
Virgin Mary His mother, and by all the saints, that we will preserve the churches 
consecrated to God, the lords, prelates, barons, nobles, and free towns of 
Hungary, and all the inhabitants of this kingdom, in all their immunities, rights, 
privileges, franchises, all good customs, ancient and generally approved, that we 
will do justice to all, and that we will keep inviolate the decree of the most 
serene King Andrew." 

The foregoing abstract may serve to give the reader some notion of the manner 
in which the supreme authority v\'as divided between the king and the nobles, and 
the pains taken in framing the constitution to guarantee to the latter the full 
enjoyment of their liberties. It is upon the articles above cited, that the 
Hungarians ground their complaints against the house of Hapsburgh. The 
adherents of the latter ever since the accession of Ferdinand I. have never ceased 
to charge the Magyars with being animated by a restless mutinous spirit, with 
being fond of change, turbulent and averse to a settled government. The latter 
liave in reply pointed to the digest of their laws in justification of their acts, 
and have asserted that as these laws were in operation for more than seven 
centuries, and had been confirmed and sworn to by every monarch who had 
ascended the throne, the Hapsburgh family were bound to accept them with all 
their consequences, and threw upon those who sought to infringe them the blame 
of all the dissensions and violence which the kingdom had suffered. 

The house of Austria grounded its claim to the kingdom upon the double right 
of succession and conquest. The right of succession was derived from the various 
matrimonial alliances contracted between members of that family and the Hun- 
garian princes, and upon the treaties of alliance and succession entered into between 
Mathias Corvinus and Ladislaus II. with Frederick, by which it was agreed that 
in case either of the former died without legitimate issue, the crown should revert 
to the latter, or to Maximilian his son, or to Ferdinand. The accompanying table, 
taken from the work of the able and learned historian of the house of Austria, 
v/ill present a clearer view of the grounds upon which this claim was based than 
any other explanation that can be furnished. f 

* Hos, N". IS"., juramus per Deum viviim, per ejus matrem S. Mariam Virginem, per 
omnes s;mctos, quod nos ecclesias Dei, doniinos, praelatos, barones, nobiles, eiritates liberas, 
et omnes rc-gnicolas in suis iiiimimitatibus, et libertatibus, juribus, privilegiis, ac antiquis 
bonis et approbatis eonsuetudinibns conservabimus, omnibusque justitiam facicmus, serenis- 
simi quondam Andrea? Kegis Decretum Observabimiis, &c, 

t Coxe's History of the House of Austria, vol. i. part ii. j). 5iQ. 



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148 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 



The grounds of the right of conquest have still to appear in our narrative. 

The career of the house of Hapsburgh presents one of the most remarkable ex- 
amples upon record of continued good fortune. No other of the reigning families 
of Europe has withstood the shocks and revolutions of the last ten centuries with 
the same audacious confidence in its own destiny, and with equal exemption 
from all the ordinary consequences of folly, injustice, and oppression. A thousand 
storms have rolled over its head. It has bowed before them all, and survived to 
rejoice in the sunshine of restored tranquility and prosperity. Its descent can 
be traced up through all the changes and revolutions of the middle ages to the 




HUNGAKY IN MOURNING. 



earlier centuries of the Christian era, when one of its heads is found among the 
robber barons of Germany, perched in a tall castle upon an inaccessible cliff. 
From that day, when the inheritance did not equal in extent the estates of many 
an English gentleman, to the present, when it has absorbed a third, at least, of 
northern Europe, every member of it has been distinguished by the same grasping 
imperious spirit, the same indifference to means in the pursuit of personal power 
and gain. Most of the earlier counts were distinguished by great ability, great 
tact, and great military bravery, but we can hardly point to one who displayed 
any proper sense of his responsibilities to the people whom he governed. They 
were singularly tenacious of their rights, powerfully animated by the love of 



THE HAPSBURGH FAMILY. 149 

acquiring. The consequence is that Austria has for many centuries been 
governed as private patrimony rather than as a state. Other constitution than 
the w^ill of the monarch, or the traditions of the monarch's ancestors, no Austrian 
subject has ever known. And this policy, strange to say, has so far been 
singularly successful ; not, indeed, as regards the welfare of the people, but as 
regards the stability of the reigning family. How many dynasties has this 
family seen extinguished and forgotten ! — how many governments overthrown — - 
how many " battles, sieges and fortunes " has it passed through in safety, while 
monarchies in which military genius seemed hereditary, whose thrones were based 
on the affections of united, fond, and brave people, Avhose existence, in some periods 
of their history, seemed a thing to last for ever, have been blasted, like an oak by 
lightning, and their heirs sent to wander in indigence and exile, and to build their 
hopes upon the misfortunes of their successors and the fickleness of the 
crowd. 

IS'either the training nor temper of the Hapsburghs fitted them for reigning 
as constitutional kings. A monarch whose will has been his law, frets against 
the restraints of the parliamentary system, like an imprisoned lion against 
the bars of his cage, and break them he will by force or stratagem. There 
are a thousand examples of the truth of this in the history of every country 
in Europe ; there is hardly one to prove it false, Hungary had experienced 
many disasters before the battle of Mohacs, but none which struck so deadly 
a blow at her liberties. Her spirit was broken by the ravages of the Turks; 
and torn by dissensions from within, she was forced to cast herself at the feet of 
Austria, and merge her history in that of a family of despots. The principle of election 
now gave way to that of hereditary descent, and more than this, singular 
complications arose in the working of the legislative machinery, from the fact that 
the king was no longer a national monarch. He had, other states and other 
interests to attend to ; he resided at a distance from the seat of government ; he 
could if necessary, by the subsidies and military force of his other dominions, 
render himself quite independent of the supplies or remonstrances of the diet. 
The consequence of this was, that the national assembly had its attention altogether 
diverted from its proper sphere of duty. It felt itself responsible for the rights 
and liberties of the nation. It felt that these liberties were viewed with a jealous 
eye by a powerful and ambitious neighbour, the head of a foreign nation — -and that 
neighbour their OAvn king. It directed its whole energies, therefore, to the 
single task of watching him, of counteracting his intrigues by other intrigues not 
less mischievous. From standing constantly on the defensive it became violently 
conservative, and saw in every change an attack upon its privileges. The Avritten 
constitution was an object of deep dislike to the Austrian emperors, who in their 
hereditary states were acciistomed to no such restraint ; but the more they 
sought to overturn it, the more fondly and fiercely did the Hungarians cling to it. 
To the latter its very defects became objects to be revered and admired. They 
thought only of preserving, never of improving it. Progressive legislation, that 



lOO HISTOEY OF HUNGARY. 

should imjorove the condition of tho people and develop the resources of th@ 
country, became a thing unknown. The ravages of the Turks, and the scarcely 
less terrible ravages of the rival parties who contended for the throne, were left 
to be repaired by time, which heals all wounds to be sure, but seldom without 
leaving behind ineffaceable scars. In the contests with the Ottomans, the Magyars 
had risen to the level of heroism ; in their contests with Austria they never dis-: 
played the same energy and activity, and in their long disasters, in their many 
grievances we see a striking proof of God's watchful guardianship of the rights of 
humanity. These oligarchs who thundered against the oppressions of Austria, 
were themselves grievous oppressors. Their boasted constitution and laws were 
formed for the benefit of one section of the population only. The real people, the 
serfs who tilled the soil, who bore the brunt of the Turkish ravages, who toiled 
generation after generation upon soil to which they had no claim save in death, 
who heaped up riches that others might enjoy them, who starved that their lords 
might revel in luxury, who knew no law but the will of the baron, and to whom 
no political changes brought freedom or relief, had no interest in this struggle; 
They fought the battles of their masters, that their masters might crush them 
more effectually. When they rose under George Dozsa, they rose in obedience 
to one of those instincts of human nature which no slavery can ever utterly 
extinguish. Borne down by skill and force they resumed their old life of hardship 
and endurance. The code which governed them was one which for ingenious 
cruelty and wrong has no parallel in history, save the penal enactments by which 
England sought in the eighteenth century to extirpate Catholicism in Ireland, or 
those by which it is now sought to perpetuate negro slavery in America. In 
Hungary, these odious distinctions proved the ruin of those who upheld them. 
In the serfdom of the peasants lay the seeds of the national downfall. To 
outrage liberty daily in the persons of their vassals before the eyes of their 
children, was not the way to train up good citizens to love and defend the state. 
It is thus that God in all ages defends the interests of truth and justice, by 
infusing into oppression poison for the oppressor. The strength of the van- 
quished and wronged may fail them.; but the laws of morality are ever the same, 
and make known in unseen and hidden ways the watchful providence of God 
ovfer his creatures. 

Immediately after the battle of Mohacs, and death of Louis, Ferdinand laid claim 
to the two crowns of Hungary and Bohemia, to the latter in right of his wife Anne, 
the only sister of the deceased monarch, and the other in virtue of the compact 
which gave him the reversion of the crown in case of the failure of male issue in 
the reigning family. But as both these countries repudiated all claims founded 
upon any right but that of election, he prudently waived them, and put himself in 
competition as a candidate before the diets. His only opponent in Bohemia being 
the duke of Bavaria, he was elected by a committee of tAventy persons, who were 
appointed by the states to choose a king. In his letter of thanks to the states, he 
promised to preserve inviolate all their rights and privileges, to observe the religious 



ELECTION OF JOHN SZAPOLYAI, 151 

compacts, to raise no foreigners to any office in the state, to issue good- money, 
to govern the kingdom according to the ancient laws and customs, and to reside 
at Prague. He also, by a public act, acknowledged that he owed the throne 
to the free choice of the barons, nobles, and states of Bohemia, and dis- 
claimed all other pretensions. He soon after repaired to Iglau, where he took the 
usual oaths, and continuing the journey to the capital ^yas cro^yncd in the cathedral 
Avith Anne, his wife. After taking possession of Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia, at 
that time dependencies upon the Bohemian crown, he proceeded to Hungary.* 

Here he had a more formidable rival in the person of John Szapolyai, the way vode 
of Transylvania, who had led 40,000 men to the aid of Louis, but was unable to 
reach him till it was too late. His family was partly of German origin, and were 
distinguished by their brilliant services in the reign of Louis the Great, and changed 
their original name of Heems or Kapol of Deakfaloa to that of Zapolya, their 
estates in Sclavonia. It then received the addition of the final i, a termination 
which has the same, value when attached to the name of a noble, as de among the 
Fiench ffentilshotnmes. Modern historians, however, call them Szapolyai. | Upon 
hearing of the result of the battle of Mohacs, John remained inactive at the head 
of his army near Szeguedin, while Solyman was overrunning the country. He had 
already begun to aspire to the throne, and was waiting for an opportunity to 
advance his claims. He was very popular amongst the nobles on account of the 
active and successful part he had taken in suppressing the insurrection of the 
peasantry, and he sought to ingratiate himself with them still further, by sending 
messages to all the leading men, representing to them the disgrace it would inflict 
upon the country, if any other than a native were elected to wear the crown. His 
pretensions were favoured also by Peter Perenyi, who had at that time the crown 
in his possession, and in an assembly of the states held at Tokay he Avas unanimously 
elected king by a large party of the nobles, who were averse to the rule of a foreigner. 
He Avas afterwards croAvned at Alba Eegia Avith great pomp. After the f^tes and 
rejoicings attendant upon the ceremony were over, he bestowed the principal 
dignities and offices of the state upon bis chief supporters, amongst others 
upon Verboczi, Avho Avas related to him by marriage, a man, Avho had gained 
immense popularity in the country, oAving to his ardent patriotism and brilliant 
eloquence. 

Immediately iipon hearing of this, Ferdinand Avrote to his sister Mary, the 
AvidoAV of Louis, imploring her to use all means in her power to procure his 
election to the throne of Hungary, to preA'ent that monarchy, Avhich Avas in reality 
the bulwark of Christendom against the Ottomans, from going to dissolution. 
She, therefore, summoned another diet at Presburgh, Avhere a party of nobles 
declared John's election illegal, because the assembly at Tokay had not been 
summoned by the palatine, and, in their tvirn, elected Ferdinand. The latter 

* Coxe'sHist. of the House of Austria, vol. i. part ii. p. 551, 
t Paul Sasay. 



152 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 



instantly prepared to support his claim, by marching a large army of 
Germans and .Bohemians to Buda, having previously taken the usual oath to 
observe the rights and privileges of the nation. He was joyfully received by his 
supporters, who were mostly made up of magnates, who plumed themselves 
upon their long descent, and were jealous of John's election, and, therefore, hailed 
Ferdinand as "the saviour and restorer of Hungarian liberty." Another 
assembly of the states was summoned at Buda, who confirmed the decision of that 
of Presburgh ; and Ferdinand was proclaimed king, and John and his adherents 



■ W 1 I . 



' > 




JOHN SZAPOLYAI. 



were declared traitors, if they did not make their submission within twenty-eight 
days. John undoubtedly occupied a proud position as the champion of the 
national rights, and, in the hands of an able and energetic man, it would have been 
so used as to vindicate Hungarian independence for ever. But he was wanting 
in decision and self-reliance, and in many instances gave strong evidence of 
pusillanimity. By the persuasion of the more valiant of his followers, he once 
offered battle to the Austrian forces, but being defeated, took refuge in Poland, 
leaving Ferdinand undisputed master of the kingdom. There he was received 



. TURKISH INVASION. 153 

with great kindness by Lasky, a wealthy and powerful noble, who advised him 
strongly to seek the aid of Solyman to recover his rights. Lasky himself accord- 
ingly set forward to Constantinople as his ambassador, and there won the support 
of the vizier and the bashaws by his presents, and by the grace and suavity of his 
manners, so that the sultan was already influenced in his favour before he had 
obtained an audience. He offered to Solyman, on John's behalf, to hold the crown 
of Hungary as a Turkish fief, and to pay him an annual tribute, in case he 
^assisted in driving out Ferdinand, and he represented to him that the relation- 
ship of the latter with Charles V., and many other powerful monarchs of the 
west, would render him a dangerous neighbour in case he succeeded in retaining 
Hungary. The sultan listened with attention, and, after some consideration 
agreed to support John. 

Very soon after, Ferdinand bethought himself of sending an embassy to 
Constantinople also, as he was not without fears that John would seek Turkish 
aid. John Oberdansch was, therefore, despatched for this purpose, but on his 
arrival, he at once perceived by the cool demeanour of the officials that he 
had been anticipated, and it was, therefore, not without some misgivings, that, 
after making professions of a desire for peace, he required the restoration of 
Belgrade, and other places wrested from Hungary. This demand, contrasting so 
strongly with the humble offers of submission which had been made by Szapolyai, 
roused the ire of the sultan to the highest pitch. He started from his seat and 
exclaimed, " Belgrade ! Go tell your master that I am collecting troops, and 
preparing for my expedition, I will suspend at my neck the keys of my 
Hungarian fortresses, and will bring them to that plain of Mohacs, where Louis, by 
the aid of God, found a defeat and a grave. Let Ferdinand meet and conquer me, 
and take them after severing my head from my body ! But, if I find him not 
there, I will seek him at Buda, or follow him to Vienna !" '^■ 

While he was preparing to execute his threat, Szapolyai collected a corps of 
Polish troops, and entering Hungary defeated the Austrians at Cassau, and was soon 
joined by partizans from Hungary, Transylvania, and Sclavonia.f Shortly after- 
wards Solyman appeared on the frontiers with 300,000 men, and pitching his camp 
on the plains of Mohacs, was joined by John and a great crowd of the Hungarian 
nobility ; the former did him homage for his kingdom, by kissing his hand, and 
the sultan promised speedily to put him in possession of all he had lost. After 
leaving Solyman's tent he paid his respects to Louis Gritti, the son of Andrew 
Gritti the doge of Venice. The former was a hired spy of Solyman, and stood 
high in his favour, and thus enabled to render John important service. 

The sultan soon after began his march, took Buda, and the citadel having been 
surrendered to him by treachery, he delivered it to John. He then despatched a 
corps of irregular cavalry to ravage the country as far as the Lintz. Visegrad, 

* Hist. Rerum. Gest. inter Ferdinandum et Johannem, Scriptores Her, Hung. vol. 
ii. p. 394. 

t Coxe's History of the House of Austria, vol. i. part ii. p. 563. 



154 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

Gran, Comorn, Raab, and Altenburg fell before him in rapid succession, and he 
-at last arrived at Vienna, having pillaged the inhabitants on the line of his march. 

Ferdinand was by this time thoroughly alarmed ; and had made every 
exertion to save his capital. The fortifications were old, and had been built 
before the invention of gunpowder, and consequently though fully able to resist 
the attacks of unaided valovir, they could offer but small defence to a well served 
park of artillery ; the ditches were dry and shallow, and there were no flanking 
towers. By the exertions of the emperor, however, all these defects were in some 
measure remedied. He caused the wall to be repaired as well as time would 
permit, travelled himself in person to many of the principal towns of Germany 
to request aid against the infidels, and succeeded in procuring reinforcements 
to the extent of 20,000 men, and Frederick, the count palatine, advanced at 
the head of a large corps of troops raised by the German states, and though too 
late to enter the city, contributed to its relief by keeping the Turks in a state of 
continual alarm. 

The latter spread their camp around the whole city in four divisions, three of 
which were commanded by bashaws of tried skill and valour, and the fourth, 
containing the janizaries, by the sultan himself. The first few days of the siege, 
while awaiting the arrival of the heavy artillery, which was being brought up the 
Danube on rafts, were employed in pouring in showers of arrov^^s thick as hail, 
without any other effect, however, than compelling the garrison to keep under 
cover. But as fate would have it, the artillery never came. When passing 
Presburgh, the boats which conveyed it were assailed by Wolfgang Oder, the 
governor, with a battery of artillery concealed amongst the trees on the bank of 
the river, and the greater part were sunk or destroyed, and the guns thrown into 
the water. 

Solyman, though greatly chagrined by the loss of his artillery, still did not give 
up hopes of success. By mining in every direction, he sought to effect breaches in 
the walls, but his efforts were frustrated by the diligence of tfie garrison, who dis- 
covered the position and extent of the works by placing dice on drums laid upon the 
ground and basins filled with water to exhibit the vibrations caused by the sound 
of the besiegers' tools. Countermines were then made with great rapidity, and 
in this Avay 9,000 of the Turks were either slain or overwhelmed. One mine 
was, however, at length completed before it was discovered, and on being ex. 
ploded made a' wide breach in the walls, and a large body of the besiegers 
instantly rushed to the assault, covering their approach by a discharge of arrows. 
The Viennese met them in the opening with unshaken courage, and after a sharp 
hand-to-hand conflict, compelled them to retire. Two more breaches were soon 
after effected in a similar manner, and a second and third time the assailants were 
driven back with tremendous slaughter. Solyman made a fourth attempt, in 
which his whole army took part, but with no better success than before, and still 
greater sacrifice of life, and, at last, finding the Avinter at hand, and fearing the 
arrival of fresh succours, he raised the siege, and retired to Buda, after having 



RETURN OF SOLYMAN. 155 

wasted thirty days before llie walls. The joy of the Viennese at their deliverance 
Was somewhat damped by learning that the Turkish army bad laid Waste the 
whole country in its retreat, and had led more than sixty thousand persons into 
captivity.'"'' At Buda John Szapolyai was solemnly proclaimed king in the midst 
of a numerous assembly of Turkish and Hungarian nobles, and the crown of St; 
Stephen and the other regalia Avhich the sultan had hitherto retained in his pos- 
session were delivered to him. A body of Turkish troops were then left in the 
garrison, and Solyman returned in triumph to Constantinople, committing such 
frightful havoc on his way, that John, who owed him his throne, shed tears 
when he heard of it. 

At his departure Solyman left Louis Gritti, to whom we have already referred, a 
renegade Venetian, the son of the doge, to be the confidential adviser of Szapolyai. 
He soon after recalled him to Constantinople, and sent him back invested with 
still more extensive powers as lieutenant-governor in his name of the kingdom of 
Hungary. Gritti made his entrance into Wallachia at the head of a large body 
of troops, and passing thence to Transylvania, caused a proclamation to be made 
through the Hungarian provinces, to king John's great chagrin, ordering all the 
prelates, magnates, and free towns, to have recourse to him as arbitrator and 
lieutenant of the grand seignor, and as sole judge of all their debates, strifes, and 
quarrels. Emerik Cibacy, bishop of Varadin,' the wayvode of Transylvania, who 
v/as already at enmity with Gritti, was greatly disgusted by his sudden elevation, 
made no haste to pay his respects to him, and when he did receive him, it Avas at 
the head of an armed force in an open plain. This demeanour so greatly incensed 
the latter, that, being urged on by other aspirants for the office of wayvode, he 
caused Emerik to be assassinated in his tent, and had his head carried to him 
suspended by one of the ears. Roused into fury by the murder of their Avay-. 
vode, the Transylvanians rose in arms, and having defeated Gritti and taken 
him prisoner, they put him to death, as well as his sons, whom they surprised 
and overpowered. 

After having passed the winter of 1529 in tranquillity at Constantinople, in the- 
following spring Solyman renewed his preparations for the subjugation of Austria, 
and, with a larger army than ever he had assembled before, set out late in the 
spring ; and after a march of fifty-six days reached Belgrade. The extent of his 
armament, and the remembrance of the sufferings endured by the inhabitants of 
the countries through which he passed on the former occasion, spread terror 
throughout Germany ; and the religious dissensions by Avhich that country was 
then torn and divided, incapacitated Ferdinand from making so gallant a defence 
as before. Succours were voted by the diet to the full extent of its ability, but 
by no means sufficient to stem the torrent which threatened to overwhelm the 
Avhole of we.stern Europe. Ferdinand sent ambassadors to Solyman with nch 



* KnoUes's Hist, of the Turks, art, Solyman the Magnificent. History of the Troubles in 
Hungary, p. 50. ■ ' ■ • 



156 HISTORY or HUNGARY. 

presents and proposals of peace ; but they met with a haughty and insolent 
rebuff, and were ordered to follow his march and await his pleasure. Having 
crossed the Save, he left the Danube (on which he embarked his artillery in a 
flotilla of three thousand vessels) on his left, and turning a little to the right, 
poured his hordes through the western provinces, till on arriving on the frontiers 
of Styria, he stopped before the little town of Guntz, since so famous, but till 
then almost unknown. It was a small place, square built, badly fortified, and 
garrisoned only by eight hundred men, under the command of Nicholas Jurissitz. 
Solyman encompassed it round about with five hundred thousand men, and 
a battery of three hundred field pieces ; and called upon the governor to surrender. 
The summons was disregarded, and the Turks commenced the attack by making 
three separate breaches in the walls by the explosion of mines, while the cannon 
from a neighbouring hill rained shot incessantly upon the interior. Jurissitz, 
nothing daimted, constructed a curtain of earth and boards, which shut out the 
ramparts from the sight of the Turkish gunners, and thus allowed his soldiers to 
give their whole attention to the defence of the breaches against the assaults of 
the janizaries ; and succeeded in repairing, in one night, all the damage done by 
■fee enemy in three days. At last Solyman threw up two mounds of such height 
that they not only overtopped the walls, but enabled the gunners who were 
stationed with cannon on the top to pick off every one who showed himself in the 
streets ; and thus covered, the besiegers once more rushed to the assault, and once 
again were beaten back with great slaughter. Bribes, promises, threats, and 
entreaties were all employed in vain ; and the sultan was at length compelled 
to accept a feigned submission, and leave Jurissitz in possession of the fortress, 
after a siege of twenty-eight days. The gallant example afforded by the little 
garrison of Guntz, aroused the ardour of all the warriors of Christendom ; 
and the check experienced by Solyman, gave time to Ferdinand to concert 
measures for the defence of his dominions. 

The troubles in Germany were composed by the treaty concluded by Charles V. 
at Eatisbon, and enabled both Protestants and Catholics to unite their forces 
against the common enemy with extraordinary vigour and unanimity. Charles 
drew his veterans from the Low Countries ; Ferdinand collected troops from 
Bohemia and the neighbouring provinces ; Sigismond of Poland sent succours ; 
and the ablest officers from all parts of Europe flocked to volunteer their services, 
and, if need were, to serve in the ranks. The emperor and Ferdinand having 
united their forces, consisting of 90,000 foot and 30,000 horse, encamped under 
the walls of Vienna to await the approach of the Turks. A great battle was then 
daily expected which should finally decide the fate of Europe. 

But Solyman was disheartened by the unexpected resistance he had met with at 
Guntz, and was astonished by the wonderful and unusual harmony of the Christian 
powers. His baggage and heavy artillery had not yet arrived, being unable to get 
past Presburgh, and instead of fighting he determined to retreat. He, therefore, 
despatched his irregular cavalry to lay waste the country, and retired through* the 



DEATH OF JOHN SZAPOLYAI, 157 

mountains to Gantz, the capital of Styria, where he remained for a short time 
inactive, but winter approaching, he was at last compelled to return pre- 
cipitately to Constantinople, discomfited and humiliated, and he had scarce 
arrived when the news reached him that his light-horse which had penetrated 
as far as the Ems, had been surrounded and cut to pieces on the way back, in 
September, 1532.''' 

A favourable opportunity was now afforded to Ferdinand to conquer the whole 
of Hungary and expel John, if he could have but secured the support of the huge 
army which Charles had under his command. But as soon as Solyman had 
abandoned the field, it was found impossible to keep together the heterogeneous 
materials of which it was composed. Winter was approaching, provisions were 
becoming scarce, and disease was breaking out in the camp, and Ferdinand soon 
fovmd himself left with little more than his own forces. 

With these he for several years carried on a desultory Avarfare with John, 
which brought no positive advantage to either, while it devastated and impoverished 
the country. At last, the latter, tired of the dispute, chagrined and humiliated by 
the reproaches which were cast upon him, on account of his alliance with the 
sultan, and despairing of ever being able to recover the provinces bordering on 
Austria, consented to divide the kingdom with Ferdinand. By the mediation of 
Charles, a treaty was concluded at Great Varadin, by which it was stipulated that 
John was to retain the title of king, together with Transylvania, and all that part 
of Hungary which was then in his possession, and Frederick was to hold the re- 
mainder, and at John's death his male issue was to inherit his paternal dominions 
and the wayvodeship of Transylvania only ; and he was to renounce all alliances 
against the house of Austria, and both were to unite in a league against the Turks. 
It was not without indignation that the Hungarians beheld the cool manner in which 
the kingdom had been divided by the two potentates, without the participation of 
the states, just as if it was the patrimony of either, of which he had the full and 
entire disposition. But such was the misery and desolation which prevailed, that 
they had neither the courage to remonstrate nor the strength to resist. The arrange- 
ment was apparently very advantageous for Ferdinand, as John was childless, 
unmarried, and well stricken in years, but no sooner was the treaty concluded 
than he married his cousin, Isabella, daughter of Sigismond, king of Poland, a 
young and beautiful princess. A great number of enemies now rose up against 
him amongst the members of his own party, and the remainder of his life was 
spent in combatting their intrigues. He died on the 21st July, 1540, of a stroke 
of apoplexy, but not before he had received the welcome intelligence that his 
wife had been delivered of a son, at Buda, who was called John Sigismond, after 
his grandfather. 

Ferdinand's rule had already disgusted those amongst the Hungarian nobility 
who had raised him to the throne. They had been terrified by the frightful 

* Knolles's History of the Turks. 



158 HiSTOEY OF HUNGARY. 

disasters which foreign invasion, civil war, and divided rule, had brought upon 
their country, and tlie constant and insidious attacks which Ferdinand was 
making upon their laws and liberties inspired them with sorrow and remorse for 
the part they had taken in supporting him. There is still extant a remonstrance 
which they addressed to him, clear, succinct, and forcible, and worthy of record, 
as the last groan of expiring liberty. They declared that before taking into 
consideration his principal demands, bowed down by the load of their grief, they 
eould not refrain from addressing him in as few words as possible upon the subject 
of their many grievances- — the crying injustice and oppression Avhich they had for so 
long a time endured, in the constant infringements of their liberties and privileges. 
They had undergone terrible injuries from the Turks, murders, burnings, and cruel 
tortures, but these were but trifling in comparison with v/hat they had suffered 
from the soldiers of the king, who had desolated the country by plunder, rapine, 
and violence, and justified their outrages by complaining of the delay in the 
payment of their wages, though the diet had invariably shown the utmost 
willingness to grant supplies. They declared also that the greater part of the 
troubles and ravages to Avliich the kingdom had been exposed were the work 
of the officers commanding the foreign troops, whom Ferdinand, contrary to law, 
had introduced into the kingdom. The fortresses were all in their hands, and 
they made a practice of pillaging the farms in their neighbourhood, and added 
insult to the injury by speaking of the Hungarian people in the vilest and most 
contemptuous terms. These foreign soldiers Avere the terror of the districts 
through which they passed, as they acted as if in an enemy's country, and for all 
these reasons the states and orders of the kingdom implored Ferdinand to put a 
stop to the disorders, so that they might no longer be treated as outlaws or 
aliens by those whose duty it was to succour and protect them.-'' 
■ Upon John's death, Ferdinand thought he had nothing to do but to enter into 
possession of the whole kingdom, according to the terms of the treaty, but to his 
astonishment and chagrin the adherents of the late king refused to acknowledge 
his claims, and crovx^ned John Sigismond almost immediately after he had been 
baptized, using in the ceremony the royal crown, of which they had retained 
possession.--' Ferdinand sent a message to Isabella, his mother, requiring the 
delivery of the regalia and the acknowledgment of his right to the succession ; 
but Isabella was a woman of too high a spirit to surrender one tittle of her son's 
claims. All the historians of the period join in eulogizing her character and her 
accomplishments. From her mother, Bonna Sforza of Milan, she inherited 'the 
grace and acquirements for which the Italian Avomen in that age were famous, and 
she added to thein beauty and tenderness, v^^hich were by no means so general. 
But these vvere the least of her charms. She had, though cradled in prosperity, 
armed herself against the severest reverses. She was not only versed in classic 
lore, but had studied the science of government with a zeal which humanity 

* Art. 2-5, of 1559. Art 36 and 37, of 1563. 



GEOEGE MARTINUZZI. 159 

liursed and kept alive. Those details of poverty and hardship, which so often 
disgust and repel the high-horn and fortunate, were to her a source of interest 
and attraction. Throughout the whole of her life she was the friend and consoler 
of the wretched serfs, who seldom had any other. She inquired into their wants, 
listened to the rudely told story of their grievances, and became their advocate 
and intercessor with their seigneurs. After her husband's death, it devolved 
entirely upon her to act as guardian of her son, and to fill the duties of the office 
which the diet had conferred upon him ; and her position, difficult under 
any circumstances, was rendered doubly difficult by a declaration of hostilities on 
the part of Ferdinand. She felt the necessity of having a coadjutor, whose 
firmness, experience, and sagacity might support her through the storms and 
rials of a civil war. 

This she foimd in George Utjssenovitz, usually styled Martinuzzi, one of the 
most remarkable men of his day. He was the son of Gregory Utjssenovitz, and 
was descended from a poor but noble family of Croatia. He was born in 1482, 
in the castle of Namiezas in that province, of which place his father bore the title 
of count. But the castle or the title were the only inheritances which descended 
to George, and owing to the impoverished circumstances of the familj^, he had not 
received in his youth the education suitable to his rank. His mother was left a 
widow a few month after his birth, and as unaided merit had', in that age of the 
world, but few paths open to it, she took care to provide him with a pov/erful and 
influential godfather, in the person of her brother, James Martinuzzi, bishop of 
Scardona in Dalmatia, and that she might interest the bishop still more in his 
protecje, she made the latter adopt his surname, Avhich he bore during the remainder 
of his life. Nevertheless, his uncle soon after refused to acknowledge him, and 
to save himself from destitution he obtained a subordinate office in Szapolyai's 
household. J^Cartinuzzi's proud spiritj however, could ill brook the indignities and 
petty slights to which his position exposed him, and he lost no time in entering the 
monastery of the monks of St. Paul, where John took a refuge after one of his 
defeats by the Austrians. Martinuzzi made himself known to him, wormed him- 
self into his favour and confidence, and ended by becoming his ambassador or 
rather his spy. The cowl, then more respected than the purple, preserved him 
• amidst the many hazards to which his new calling exposed him. When Szapolyai, 
by the aid of the sultan regained his throne, he did not forget the friend of his 
adversity. He made him bishop of Great Varadin, created him treasurer, and by 
his testament nominated him one of the guardians of his son. Martinuzzi, in his 
new sphere, displayed the most extraordinary ve'^satility of character. He in many 
respects was a counterpart of Cardinal Wolsey. He had the same pride, the same 
audacious ambition that thought no pinnacle in the state too high for him to stand 
upon, the same austere devotion to his ecclesiastical duties, combined vi'ith the 
same pomp of pov\^er. But unlike Wolsey, he Avas not merely an artful, selfish 
chmx'hman, with just ability enough to push himself forward. Martinuzzi could, 
when occasion required, flmg off the monk's habit, and assume the arms and 



160 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 



carriage of a soldier. He was too prudent to seek danger, but when it came he 
knew how to brave it, and in the field displayed all the skill, courage, and fortitude 
of an accomplished general. In the transaction of civil business, he was acute 
prompt, and energetic. He was gifted with commanding eloquence, and was 
distinguished by the dignity of his deportment. He had but little regard for the 
sanctity of an oath ; gave it and broke it, with equal facility. He was skilful in 
discovering the designs of others, and equally skilful in veiling his own mystery. 
He had in short most, if not all the talents which make a man famous, and but 
few of the virtues which make a man good. By his enemies he is depicted as a 




ISABELLA SZAPOLYAI. 

monster; by his friends as a hero and a saint. Both are alike far from the truth. 
His great faults were his perfidy, his inordinate ambition, and his impatience of 
control, and these were too common in the middle of the sixteenth century 
amongst men of his class, to warrant us in judging him by the light of our own 
time.* 

By his advice the young king was proclaimed under the revered name of 



* A memoir of Martinuzzi was published in Paris in 1715, from which, the facts of his 
history are principally derived 



SIEGE OF BUDA BY FERDINAND. 



161 



Stephen, and he and his mother were placed in security in the castle of Buda, and 
an embassy was despatched to Constantinople to seek assistance from the sultan — 
a fatal and inexcusable step, which entailed a century of suffering and disaster 
upon Hungary. Ferdinand, hoping to prevent another civil war, sent an embassy 
also to Constantinople, offering to hold Hungary as a fief of the Porte and pay 
tribute like his predecessor, in case the sultan acknowledged his claim to the 
crown. But it by no means accorded with the policy of the crafty Solyman to 
receive as his vassal a powerful monarch in the prime of life, who might, ere long, 




VERBOCZI. 



not only have the will but the strength to set him at defiance. He secretly wished 
to annex Hungary to his own dominions, and no better opportunity of effecting 
his purpose was ever likely to occur than while her destinies were entrusted to the 
hands of a woman, a child, and a priest. He haughtily rejected Ferdinand's pro- 
posals, and called upon him not only to relinquish all claims to the Hungarian crown, 
but to acknowledge the Austrian {territory as a fief of the Turkish empire. The 
archduke, however, had not placed his Avhole trust in the success of the nego* 
tiation. Before the return of his ambassadors he had despatched an army to 
Buda, in 1540, which besieged the queen and her son in the citadel, under the 



162 HISTORY or HUNGAKY. 

command of General Fels. The skill and courage of Martinuzzi caused the 
failure of the enterprise. In the following year the attempt v/as renewed by 
Roggendorf, when a traitor, to whom Martinuzzi had given some cause of offence, 
sold the pass, and the Austrian troops had already entered the gates, when the 
sentinels gave the alarm. The garrison rushed to their arms, and under the com- 
mand of Urbain Batthyanyi drove them back sword in hand. In the heat of the 
engagement, a watchman on the tower announced the appearance of the Moslem 
standards on the plain close to the city. The sultan' had sent his vizier, Mehemet 
Pasha, to the relief of the queen, with a large body of troops. The Austrians 
were taken by surprise, but after some hesitation, Koggendorf determined to offer 
battle. He accordingly shifted his camp. The Turks harassed him by constant 
assaults, and, at length, in a general engagement, his army Avas utterly routed. 
Great numbers were forced into the Danube an.d drowned, others in attempting 
to escape in boats fell under the fire of the janizaries ; and the garrison of the 
citadel sallying forth to take part in the conflict, added fresh horrors to the 
scene. Roggendorf, mortally wounded, sought in vain to rally his terror-stricken 
troops. The tide of battle soon rolled into the streets of Pesth, and in the melee 
neither age nor sex was spared. Soldier and citizen, friend and foe, were hewed 
down by the Turks in one indiscriminate massacre. The Danube was choked 
with the bodies of the slain, and the blood, rushing down from the high ground, 
dyed its waters for miles. Three thousand soldiers were slaughtered in the 
church of St. Gerard, in which they had taken refuge ; and many more perished 
in the flames of the royal stables, Avhich Martinuzzi ordered to be set on fire on 
hearing that they were occupied by Ferdinand's troops. The latter lost thirty 
pieces of siege artillery and one hundred and fifty field pieces, and nearly 25,000 
men in killed and wounded, besides those who were taken prisoners. Boggendorf 
made his escape to the island of Czalokoz, and there died. 

Solyman had followed in the track of his vizier with a large army, and arrived 
under the walls of Buda soon after the victory, where he v/as joined by other 
corps which had been employed in wresting Transylvania from Ferdinand. He 
sent some presents to the queen and her son, and expressed the most lively desire 
to see the infant for whom he had undergone so much toil and trouble, and whose 
interests he had so deeply at heart, and requested her to send him to his camp. 
Isabella, Avith all the suspicious- tenderness of a mother's love, hesitated to com- 
mit him to the hands of one v/hom she could not but regard more as a relentless 
conqueror than as an ally, and made a thousand excuses for refusing to comply. 
But Martinuzzi impressed upon her the danger of offending the sultan, soothed 
her fears, and offered to guarantee the king's safety by accompanying him in 
person. He was accordingly magnificently dressed, placed in a splendid carriage, 
and thus conveyed to the Turkish camp. So!yman received him with all out- 
ward marks of affection — took him in his arms, caressed him, and desired his own 
sons alwa)'."^ to regard John Sigismond as their brother. The ladies and nobles Avho 
1 : !" ■ •''>^ rnvo^_ -;rritp \YeTc received wiih eqnal courtesy and Avere sumptuously 



SEIZURE OF BUDA BY THE TURKS. 163 

entertained at the sultan's own table. While the festivities were proceeding, 
the janizaries entered Buda in large bodies, but without order or regularity, 
under pretence of seeing the town. The Hungarian garrison suffered them to 
pass without suspicion, but, to their surprise, within a short time afterwards, 
they suddenly seized upon all the principal posts, disarmed the guard, and 
issued a proclamation, 'warning the inhabitants to confine themselves to their 
own houses, and to deliver up their arms peaceably, and as a measure of still 
greater precaution, a Turkish soldier was billeted in every family. The infant 
prince was then sent back, but Martinuzzi and all the others who accompanied 
him were detained prisoners. The queen, on hearing of these acts of gross 
perfidy, was seized with consternation, and fearing some still worse outrage, 
wrote humbly to Solyman, beseeching him to liberate her friends and restore to her 
the possession of her capital. The ansAver was short, but decisive. She and the 
other guardians of her son were required to renounce in his name all right to the 
throne, and, in return, he was invested with the principality of Transylvania, as 
the tributary and feudatory of the Porte, and Isabella was required to quit Buda 
and repair forthwith to her new dominions. A garrison of 10,000 janizaries was 
then placed in the citadel, and Verboczi, the eminent lawyer who had formed the 
code, was appointed supreme judge of the inhabitants of Buda, but he did not long 
enjoy his doubtful honours, as he died some months afterv/ards, bitterly regretting 
on his deathbed the equivocal part which he had played towards the close of his 
career. The queen was more attached to her son than to the crown, and she set 
out without hesitation, but no sooner had she arrived upon the frontiers of Tran- 
sylvania than the nobles of the principality, fearing that by receiving her they 
might draw on themselves the anger of the Turks, Vvfished to oppose her entrance. 
She was consequently compelled to call Martinuzzi, who had regained his liberty, 
and been appointed by the sultan to act as her adviser, to her aid, though his 
pride and ambition had made her fear and hate him. He hastened to her 
assistance, put down her enemies, seized upon the treasury, and soon surrounded 
himself by a powerful party, to whose intrigues and machinations she could only 
oppose a small number of faithful friends. 

Having mastered Buda and Pesth, Solyman soon captured all the other prin- 
cipal fortresses, extended his arms on both sides of the Danube, and annexed to 
his dominions all the southern provinces of Hungary. Ferdinand, disheartened 
by the defeat of his army under Roggendorf, and despairing of obtaining any aid 
from his brother Charles, who had schemes of his own to attend to, and finding 
his territory exhausted and his treasury half empty, determined to sue for peace, 
in the hope of being enabled to retain, at least that portion of Hungary which was 
still in his hands. He, therefore, sent rich presents to Solyman and requested the 
investiture of the kingdom. Solyman received the presents but refused the inves- 
titure, and required him thenceforth and for ever utterly to renounce all claim to 
the kingdom of Hungary. From that moment Hungary became the theatre of a 
contest which, happily, lias had few parallels in history, between two foreign 



164 HISTORY OF HU^'^GARY. 

armies, to whom victory seemed but a secondary object, and the ruin and misery 
of the inhabitants the chief. Austrians and Turks both acquitted themselves of 
their horrible task with equal fury. A new force, furnished by the electors of 
Germany, also made its appearance on the scene, and added to the violence 
and outrage which the unfortunate Hungarians had to undergo. Ottoman or 
Christian made little difference. The Catholic prince and Mahometan sultan 
adopted without scruple the same means of securing their conquests — burning, 
massacre, and pillage. At last, the Five Churches, Strigonia, and Alba Regia, were 
all carried by the Turks, and half the country was groaning under the arbitrary 
rule of the pashas, when Ferdinand was forced to request a truce of five years, 
which he obtained upon the humiliating condition of paying an annual tribute of 
80,000 ducats, and becoming a feudatory of the Porte. ■^' 

Martinuzzi was, in the meantime, carrying things with a high hand in Transyl- 
vania. He had seized upon the revenues, and refused to allow the queen even 
what was sufficient for her personal wants. He used every means in his reach 
to attach the nobles to his party ; or if any one gave open signs of aversion to 
his schemes, his enmity pursued him to the death. The unfortunate Isabella for 
a long time bore his arrogance and injustice with patience and in silence, hoping 
that time and Providence, in whose watchful care her simple and earnest piety 
taught her to repose the most implicit trust, would, in the long-run, deliver her 
out of his power. At last, however, finding his insolence and tyranny increasing 
from day to day, she was driven to complain to the sultan as the only one powerful 
enough to afford her redress. Solyman wrote to Martinuzzi, ordering him to alter 
his manner of dealing with the queen, or he would make an example of him 
for the benefit of others who might be equally presumptuous. The bishop now 
perceived that hisjiDnly resource, if he meant to preserve his power and influence, 
was to throw himself into the arms of f¥&de¥ick, and betray his trust as the 
guardian of the orphan child of his best friend and benefactor. He was 
the more inclined to this step by the continual vexation he underwent from 
Solyman, Avho, in addition to his yearly tribute, was\constantly demanding of him 
victuals, ammunition, and supplies of every descri|3^tion for his enormous army. 
He therefore opened up negotiations with an Austrian emissary for procuring the 
fulfilment of the treaty entered into by the late king John. The intrigue speedilj' 
came to the knowledge of Isabella, and she immediately apprised Solyman of it, 
Avho despatched a message to Buda ordering the pasha in command to arrest 
Martinuzzi alive or dead, and sent letters into Transylvania depriving him of all 
state, office, and authority, and ordering his subjects to kill him as a traitor. He 
also wrote to the wayvode of Wallachia, and his other officers in the Hun- 
garian provinces, desiring them to aid the queen with all the forces at their 
command. Martinuzzi received timely notice of the measures that were about to 
be taken against him, and retired from the queen's court to a well-fortified town 

* Istliuanfuis, p. 47. 




WAE, BETWEEN MARTINUZZI AND ISABELLA. ' 165 

called Sassebessa, and there determined to defend himself. He called around him 
all his partizans from various parts of the kingdom, and raised and equipped four 
thousand soldiers from amongst the hardy and warlike Szeklers. Petrowitz, John 
Sigismond's other guardian, who took the queen's part in the quarrel, began also 
to assemble an army, but before taking any decisive step determined to await the 
arrival of the Turks ; but, finding there was no sign of their appearance, Isabella 
became desirous of a reconciliation, and George feeling doubtful of the security 
of his position threw no obstacle in the way, and it was speedily effected. In 
a very short time, however, the quarrel broke out afresh, but before it came to 
an open rupture, Ferdinand succeeded in inducing his brother Charles V. to lend 
him his aid. The latter accordingly gave directions to his general, Castaldo, 
to place himself at the head of the Austrian forces, and march upon Transylvania. 
The army left Vienna in May 1551, and on its arrival at Agria, Castaldo caused 
the town to be fortified and resumed his march, crossed the Teyss and reached 
Debreczin without accident. He was here joined by Andrew Bathori, and some 
other Hungarian magnates, with a troop of cavalry. In the meantime, Isabella 
summoned a diet, composed of her adherents, to advise her what measures she 
should take for the expulsion of Martinuzzi from the kingdom. He was at that 
time at Varadin, the seat of his bishopric, and on hearing what was going on, set 
off full speed towards Transylvania. On the way the carriage was overturned, and 
he himself was nearly drowned in passing a small stream. His attendants looked 
upon the accident as an evil omen and advised him to return. His leply at once 
rebuked them for their superstition, and betrayed the height of his own ambition. 
" It is not this chariot," said he, pointing to the vehicle which lay shattered in the 
Avater, " which rules my destiny ; but that glorious one that you see shining in 
the heavens ! "•'' Upon reaching Torde, he wrote to the principal nobles, both of 
the queen's party and his own, calling upon them, if they wished to save the 
kingdom from falling into the hands of the Ottomans to repair forthwith to him, 
that there they might provide for the common good of all. Within a short time 
he was joined by a considerable number of irregular troops, both infantry and 
cavalry, and putting himself at the head, he marched rapidly to Egnet, dissolved 
the diet, and caused the queen and her son to take refuge in Alba Julia, which 
Petrowitz had garrisoned and fortified ; but fearing that it might not prove strong 
enough to resist the bishop's army, she left it and removed to Sassebassa. Martinuzzi 
immediately laid close siege to the former place, and was using every eff'ort to 
take it when Castaldo crossed the frontier and advanced into the heart of the 
country. Upon hearing of the approach of the Austrian forces, Isabella despaired 
of success, and surrendered Alba Julia. Negotiations were then opened between 
the contending parties, and at length, partly by threats and partly by persuasion, the 
bishop induced her to yield Transylvania and her possessions in Hungary to 
Ferdinand, and to renounce her son's claims to the crown, in exchange for the 

* History of the Troubles in Hungary, p. 99. 



166 ' HISTORY OF HUNGAEY. 

principalities of Oppelen and Ratibor in Silesia, with the sum of 100,000 ducats, 
and she, at the same time, surrendered the crown and regalia, which had been 
allowed by the Turks to remain in the possession of the family of Szapolyai. 
For himself, Martinuzzi demanded the government of Transylvania, the arch- 
bishoi^ric of Gran, 1,500 horse as a private guard, and 4,000 crowns yearly, as a 
salary attached to the office of treasurer, and though last not least, that 
Ferdinand should use his interest with the pope to procure him a cardinal's hat. 
Every one of his requests was complied with. Having now got everything he 
wanted, satiety brought on regret. He saw with chagrin, that great as were the 
honours and dignities with which he was loaded, his real influence in the affairs of 
.the kingdom must end with the deposition of the queen, for Ferdinand was not a 
man to admit of dictation from a priest, let his talents be ever so great. He 
therefore began to endeavour to persuade the queen to hold out a little longer, 
and delay her consent to the articles of the treaty. She was disgusted by. 
his perfidy, and refused his counsel, and at last seeing no other recourse, he 
announced to Castaldo that he was ready to carry the agreement into execution. 

At last the day arrived, on which the last act in this sad drama was to take place. 
The diet was summoned at Kolosvar to witness the resignation of the queen, and 
the surrender of the crown, the symbol of Hungarian liberty and glory. A curious 
superstition had connected in some measure at least, the right to the throne with 
the possession of the regalia. In the eyes of the multitude they had been made 
sacred by the touch of St. Stephen, and carried with them the sanction of the 
church, and the blessing of heaven. Fraud or violence had in one or two instances 
previously, transferred them to the hands of strangers, but without shaking the 
popular faith ; but now for the first time, the nation was to witness the transference, 
with all the legal and necessary forms, not only of the outward and visible signs 
of the sovereignty, but the inward and unseen grace which their possession con- 
ferred upon the elect of the people. Isabella rode on horseback to a celebrated 
abbey, about eight miles from Kolosvar, attended by a crowd of nobles, and in the 
great hall the ceremony took place. A dense multitude filled the room and 
awaited her appearance in dead silence. She entered leading her son by the hand. 
The regalia lay on a table before her — the crown, the ivory sceptre, the mantle of 
" cloth of gold bespangled with diamonds, the gown or robe, the shoes of gold, and 
the stockings. Taking the crown in her hand, she burst into tears, but speedily 
recovering her self-possession, she turned towards Castaldo, the Austrian general, 
and addressing him in Italian, bewailing her misfortunes, and committing herself and 
her son to the care and protection of Ferdinand, delivered it to him amidst the cries 
of the young prince, who seeing his mother's grief, stretched his little hands towards 
the glittering bauble, as if to seize and retain it, doubtless prizing it, in his inno- 
cence, more highly than the authority of which it was but the emblem. Castaldo 
received it and thanked her, and forthwith forwarded it, under a strong escort, 
to Ferdinand, to whom the Hungarians, thinking all controversy now at an 
end, swore allegiance. A few days after, despatches were received from him, 



PLOT AGAINST MARTINUZZI. 16T 

ratifying the treaty which had been entered into by Castaldo, and giving instruc- 
tions to have the betrothal of his daughter Johanna witli Jolm Sigismond cele- 
brated by proxy ^yithout delay, which was accordingly done with great pomp and 
apparent rejoicing. These being concluded, on the following day, the ninth of 
September, the queen departed from Kolosvar, accompanied by an escort of 400 
Hungarian cavalry. The Austrian general rode at the head of the cavalcade two 
miles out of the town, and when he took his leave, she made a vain effort to con- 
ceal the marks which grief had but too plainly left on her face. 

All parties seemed now heartily sick of contention, and everyone looked forward 
to a long interval of peace. But Ferdinand's bad policy disappointed their hopes. 
He disgusted Ivlartinuzzl, and wounded his pride by conferring the chief military 
command upon Castaldo, a Spaniard, who possessed all the punctilious haughtiness 
of his nation. This division of power between two spirits so fiery and discordant, 
led to the usual consequences — a continued series of jars. Martinuzzi used all the 
arts in which a long course of intrigue had made him an adept, to thwart and 
disappoint his colleague, and Castaldo in his turn forwarded daily complaints to 
Vienna, of the rapacity and insolence of the cardinal, and accused him of harbouring 
designs for the introduction of the Turks into the country. 

To complaints such as these, Ferdinand was well prepared to listen. He had 
already had ample proof of the audacity and tergiversation of which Martinuzzi was 
capable. He was jealous of the influence he exercised in Transylvania, and perhaps 
still more jealous of the signal ability which he displayed in the government of 
the province; he hated him for the opposition he had experienced from- him in 
times past, and he feared him for his ambition, Martinuzzi would clearly never 
prove an useful or submissive servant, and Ferdinand was determined he should 
never become a rival or an equal. But the means he chose to carry his deter- 
mination into effect were such as could only suggest themselves to a base mind. 

Solyman was indignant at all that he saw going on in Hungary, and at the 
utter disregard of his real or imaginary rights in the division and allotment of the 
territory which had been made by the queen and Ferdinand, and accordingly assem- 
bled a large army to avenge the, insult, and chastise those who had proved traitors 
to his government. He had no sooner approached the frontier than Martinuzzi 
opened a communication with him. The intrigue was discovered and reported to 
the Austrian government, and orders were instantly sent to Castaldo to get rid of 
liim in the best way he could. The Spaniard received the command without sur- 
prise, and proceeded to carry it into effect with characteristic coolness and dissi- 
mulation. He displayed no change in his manner towards Martinuzzi, save by an 
increase of cordiality. He consulted him upon public affairs with more than ordinary 
confidence and harmony. He listened to his advice, and adopted his suggestions 
even in matters in which the latter had no authority or jurisdiction. The arch- 
bishop was at that time staying at his country house at Linfcz, a strong castellated 
residence, serving equally for pleasure or secuvlty. Castaldo had access to him at 
all hours, and Martinuzzi received him with that blind confidence which a long 



168 



iliSTOIlY OF HUNGARY. 



course of good fortune too often inspires. Pavacini, Ferraro, Monino, Piacentino, 
and Scaramoncia, were the instruments selected to pour out Ferdinand's vengeance. 
The day appointed for the deed was the 19th of December, 1551. The pre- 
vious night was dark and cloudy, as if the elements wished to portend the 
tragedy. The wind blew fiercely, and the rain beat heavily on the turrets and 
battlements of the castle, and the doors inside slammed, and the windows shook, 
as they never had slammed or shook before. At daybreak the gates Avere opened, 
to let the cardinal's baggage waggons pass out, as he was to change his residence 
at noon. Twenty-four harquebusiers, who had been concealed outside, seized the 




ASSASSINATION OF MAIITINUZZI. 



opportunity to enter, and distributed themselves over the castle, having their arms 
co^cealed under long Turkish robes. The marquis Sforza then Avent up towards 
Martinuzzi's chamber, accompanied by Ferraro, Castaldo's secretary, and the other 
conspirators. The servant opened the- door without suspicion and admitted them. 
Ferraro approached the bedside and handed him some papers for his perusal and 
signature. Martinuzzi rose and sat down at the table, and while intent upon the 
documents, Ferraro stabbed him in the neck with a dagger. The wound was not 
mortal and he instantly sprang to his feet, with all his ancient courage and promp- 
titude, and snatching a poignard from his breast, defended himself with such energy 
that his assailant retreated to the lower end of the table ; but Sforza, Avho was 



ASSASCIXATIOX OF MARTINUZZI. 



169! 




standing close at hand, fractured his skull with a blow of his sabre. He fell, but 
was not dead ; and on seeing the harquebusiers enter the room, he cried out in 



170 aiSTOEY OF HUNGAEY. 

Latin, " What means this, my friends ?" They discharged their pieces into his body, 
and exclaiming, " Jesu Maria ! " he expired. Thus perished one of the great men 
of his age, a child of poverty and neglect — a man whose energy and talents made 
sovereigns fear and hate, and at last kill him. Assuredly when Ferdinand caused 
his assassination, it Avas less as a supporter of the Turks, than as a champion, 
wavering, vaccillating and faithless often it may be, of Hungarian liberty. 
He was ambitious in the highest degree, but he was often the supporter of the 
national cause in spite of him-self. Priest, cardinal, conspirator, he was still a 
Hungarian. He was a good statesman, as statesmen went at that day, an able 
general, and an intrepid soldier. He kncAV how to unite salutary caution with 
dauntless courage, to be prompt without being rash. When he fell the bopes of 
th e Hungarians fell with him, for of all their defenders and leaders, he in both 
force and policy possessed the highest ability. 

He had no sooner breathed his last, than the castle was plundered and deserted 
by the attendants, and his body lay naked and bloody on the floor of his chamber 
for many days, — "none so poor as to do him reverence." At last, some of his 
friends recovered from their panic, and conveyed him to the church of Alba Julia, 
where he was buried side by side with John Hunyadi.'^' 

Ferdinand saw at once what disgrace this murder would bring on his name, and 
published a long manifesto in justification of it. But the pope, ^^^Jfusil., was 
not to be so easily put off, when so foul an offence as the assassination of a priest 
of the church had been committed. The only answer he returned to Ferdinand's 
pleas, was the fulmination of a bull of excommunication against all who were in 
any Avay concerned in the murder, and he laid claim to the cardinal's property, as 
he had died intestate. Castaldo and his adherents had, however, seized upon all 
Martinuzzl's personal effects, and appropriated them to their own use, — amongst 
other valuables a large collection of antique coins, and it was no easy matter to 
induce a hired soldier of the sixteenth century to disgorge his plunder. f Ferdinand 
used every means in his power, threats, entreaties, bribes and intrigues, to get the 
excommunication taken off, but for a long while in vain. At last he was successful, 
but the sacred college took care to add to their absolution, a condition Avhich must 
have destroyed its spiritual efficacy — "J/" the defence and allegations made by 
Ferdinand be true." 

The thunders of the Vatican, after all, were by no means so terrible as the 
thunders of the Porte-. The sultan irritated by the efforts that had been made to 
deprive John Sigismond of the province of Transylvania, prepared to invade Hun- 
gary, at the head of two large armies, and Isabella took refuge with her father, 
the king of Poland, to await the issue. The Transylvanians, also, were exasperated 
by the foul crime which had deprived them of so able a governor. The nobles 
retired to their castles, and the Szeklers actually rose in rebellion, and were pacified 

* Martin Fiume, p. 171. 
f History of the Troubles in Iluiig.jry, p. 17 i. ■ • ' ' 



SIEGE OF AGRIA. l7l 

with difficulty. Castaldo found himself at the head of a mutinous and disaffected 
force, and surrounded by a hostile population. The Turks advanced without 
opposition under the command of the bashaw of Belgrade. The queen, hearing of 
their arrival, hastened to join them, and was followed by a powerful party of 
nobles. Temesvar, Lippa, and other places speedily fell before them. Buda bid 
defiance to the attacks of the Austrians. Castaldo in vain asked for succour, and 
Was at last obliged td take refuge in the Austrian territories. 

The courage of the Spaniards and Austrians Was, however, at length restored 
by the arrival of Duke Maurice of Saxony, who came to Ferdinand's aid with an 
army of 15,000 strong ; but Mehemet Pasha, the Turkish general, nothing daunted, 
proceeded to lay siege to Agria, with 60,000 men and sixty pieces of artillery. 
The place was protected by an old castle, without any of the defences which the 
invention of gunpowder had rendered necessary. The walls were low and weakj 
and were overlooked by a high hill at the distance of a pistol shot. But these 
defects were well supplied by the valour of the garrison, consisting of 2,000 Hun- 
garians, headed by 500 gentlemen of the highest rank. 

The soldiers and the inhabitants both took a solemn oath, which fanaticism only 
could have dictated — " That whosoever spoke of capitulation should be put to 
death ; that all the provisions should be fairly divided, and husbanded with care, 
but that as soon as they were gone, the besieged should eat one another, the 
victims to be chosen by lot, and that the women should labour in repairing the 
walls, and should support their husbands and brothers in the breach and on the 
ramparts. 

At last the Turks made their appearance, (1552,) and were hailed with defiant 
shouts. Mehemet sent a flag of truce offering honourable terms of surrender. 
The bearer was not admitted within the gates, and the only answer was the eleva- 
tion of a coffin covered with black, on the point of a lance, signifying the deter- 
mination of the garrison to die at their posts. On the following morning fifty 
pieces of artillery opened their fire upon the castle and walls, and speedily dis- 
mantled the one and laid the other in ruins. The choicest of the Ottomans then 
made three separate and simultaneous assaults, but such was the desperate courage 
of the besieged that they were driven back with the loss of 8,000 men. Four 
divisions of the jannizaries, led on by the bravest of the Moslem officers, now 
advanced to the attack, and succeeded in mounting to the top of the breaches. 
The whole population of the town turned out to meet them. The women threw 
scalding water and huge stones upon the heads of the foe, and in many cases came 
on to the charge with sabre and buckler, torn from the lifeless hand of a father or 
lover, who had fallen shattered at their feet. Mothers, for the first time in the 
history of the world, with more than Spartan heroism, or Spartan ferocity, saw 
their daughters swept down by the artillery without a sigh or tear, and advanced 
without misgiving to fill up their places. Those whom age or disease had enfeebled^ 
were often seen standing ankle deep in the blood of their nearest and dearest 
relatives and friends, encouraging the fainting soldiers to support the conflict. After 



172 HISTOKY or HUNGARY. 

several ineffectual attempts during a siege of forty days, the bashaw was at 
last obliged to abandon his enterprise, terrified and disheartened by the furious 
valour of the Christians, who were so far from being exhausted, that when making 
his retreat, they attacked him in the rear, killed a considerable number, and 
carried off a large quantity of booty. The siege was raised on the 18th of 
October, 1552/* 

The Turkish army was, however, generally successful, and defeated the forces 
of Ferdinand in several encounters. Isabella made repeated applications to Soly- 
man for the restoration of her government, and though he gave her several promises 
of redress, the Austrian oppression of the Transylvanians proved in the end a more 
effectual ally. In 1556, she made a triumphant entry into the province, accompanied 
by her son, while the Austrians retired before the victorious arms of the Turks, 
and followed by the execrations of the inhabitants ; she was received with trans- 
ports of joy. Her misfortunes seemed to have sent her new charms and new 
claims to the support and fidelity of her adherents. Her son was now old enough 
to win the hearts of the people by evidences of courage, generosity, and fortitude. 
They swore allegiance to her enthusiastically, and kept their oaths in spite of the 
intrigues and disturbances set on foot by Ferdinand and his lieutenant Castaldo, 
A diet was convened at Hermanstadt, where all the nobility did her homage. 
The Austrians, however, still retained the fortress of Erlau, and a large portion 
of the district to the east of the Teyss. 

On the 7th of August, in the same year, Charles V., emperor of Germany, the 
most powerful prince and successful warrior which Europe had seen since the 
death of Charlemagne, disgusted with the emptiness of his titles and the real insig- 
nificance of his greatness, resigned his crown and retired into a monastery, leaving 
Spain, the Low Countries, and all his possessions and claims in Italy to his son, 
Philip II. Ferdinand was elected emperor, but in consequence of some difficulty 
as to the manner of accepting the resignation, the voluntary abdication of an 
emperor being a new event in the history of Germany, he was not proclaimed for 
two years afterwards. His attention had been directed in the meantime to the 
destruction of Bohemian liberty, and the attempt to reconcile the religious sects, 
by whose rancorous dissensions his Austrian dominions were torn. From his 
elevation to the imperial throne, he expected to derive an increase of strength, 
that would enable him finally to subdue Hungary, and secure the darling object 
of his ambition — the hereditary settlement of the crown in his family. He had 
already effected this in Bohemia by a coup d'etat, characterised by unexampled 
ferocity, and his new schemes were favoured by the wavering and indecision of 
Isabella. 

She was not yet forty years of age ; but a life of bitter anxiety, care and fatigue, 
had prematurely wasted her powers, exhausted her strength and played havoc with 
her beauty. The load of disappointment and chagrin Avhich her precarious posi- 

* History of the Troubles in Hungary, p. 236. 



DFATII OF ISA15EI-LA AKD OF FERDINAND. 173 

tion, and her son's vassalage to Solyman, imposed upon her was a weightier one to 
bear than ten additional years. The slights to which her dependence upon the 
Turks exposed her, joined with her declining health, made her anxious once more 
to retire into private life, and she had again made proposals to Ferdinand, for the 
surrender of Transylvania, when the negotiations were cut short by her death on 
the 20th of September, 1559. Her son, John Sigismond, preferred the protection 
of the Ottomans, declining any dealings with Ferdinand, and therefore assumed the 
title of king of Hungary, and demanded the cession of the district between the 
Teyss and Transylvania, as well as the principalities of Oppelen and Ratibor. 

A predatory warfare followed the refusal of the latter to comply, in which the 
Turks occasionally interfered, and which the Poles vainly endeavoured to bring to an 
end by offers of mediation. At length, however, Ferdinand became anxious to 
secure an interval of tranquillity for the purpose of procuring the quiet succession 
of his eldest son, Maximilian, to the throne, and with this object concluded a truce 
with Solyman for eight years, upon promising not to disturb Sigismond in the pos- 
session of Transylvania, and to renew the tribute to the Porte. Maximilian was 
accordingly elected with all the ordinary formalities by the magnates and nobles 
of the provinces which Ferdinand still possessed. He was required to take the 
customary oath to observe all the established laws and usages of the kingdom, 
including those which his father had broken and set at defiance. 

John Sigismond refused to agree to the treaty into which Ferdinand had entered 
with the sultan, and began to make frequent incursions into the Austrian domi- 
nions. Ferdinand fearing to call down upon himself the anger of Solyman, con- 
tented himself with standing upon the defensive, and even made frequent offers of 
reconciliation, which he proposed to strengthen and confirm by the gift of his 
daughter's hand in marriage. John Sigismond refused them all, and at the insti- 
gation of the Turks kept up the guerilla warfare, in the midst of which Ferdinand 
died, on the 25th of July, 1564, of a fever which was brought on by chagrin. In 
private life his character was estimable in the extreme. He was a good husband 
and a good father. His religious opinions were sincere, and were singularly free 
from all taint of intolerance, as was evidenced by the Avisdom and impartiality of 
the measures he adopted for the reconciliation of the Protestants and Catholics 
in his dominions. He was handsome, affable in his deportment, learned and fond 
of study. His acquaintance with the modern and classical literature was greater 
than any monarch of the day could boast, and he Avas an efficient patronizer of 
science and art. But there were defects in his character which these light and 
common virtues can never counterbalance or even palliate, though it is too much 
the habit of historians to overlook them, or at most visit them with but a gentle 
reproof. Lust of power and acquisitiveness carried to excess are vices which in 
private individuals the laws of society will punish or restrain, but when displayed on 
a large scale by those above all rule, except the laws of God and the unchanging 
canons of morality, those Avhose duty it is to condemn, too often approve or are 
silent. But assuredly the absence of visible retribution does not imply the 



174 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

absence of guilt. The enormity of a crime is not in an inverse ratio to its magni- 
tude. The wresting of a kingdom from the lawful owner is a more brilliant 
exploit than the forcible seizure of another man's field, but it is a no less heinous 
wrong. To do it triumphantly is no excuse either in the one- case or the 
other. To break an oath solemnly sworn to a whole nation, is not less a 
perjury than to break one sworn to a neighbour. Nay, it is greater, because 
the evil and mischief and suffering which follow it are greater. "When public 
opinion and public teachers affect to see a distinction and a difference between 
acts like these, they show themselves forgetful of the principles of true Chris- 
tianity and of sound justice. When princes say, they can with a good conscience 
perpetrate acts, which as private individuals they dare not, and would not 
attempt, they either lie grossly or their moral sense is hideously depraved. Better 
for a man that he were sunk in the darkest depths of paganism, than that, in the 
light of Christianity and civilization, he should seek to hide his crimes beneath the 
gorgeous tapestry of success. Better for a people that the sea rolled over their 
dwellings, than that they should ever confound right with possession. Ferdinand 
swore to maintain the Hungarian laws and constitution, and every hour of his 
after life he sought as far as in him lay to infringe them, and brought a century 
and a half of war upon the kingdom. He swore also to maintain the Bohemian 
laws and constitution — he destroyed them by a coup d'etat, and massacred all those 
who dared to protest or fight against his usurpation. Martinuzzi stood in his way, 
and he murdered him without scruple or remorse. But he did all this with impu- 
nity, and therefore men say he was a good prince, a good husband, and a good 
father, and that he lent new lustre to the house of Austria. Perhaps so ; but he 
was none the less a traitor and a murderer. 



CHAPTER XY. 

JOHN SIGISMOND, MAXIMILIAN, AND STEPHEN BATHOKI. 

A.D. 1564—1586. 

When Maximilian ascended the throne the war Avas carried on with renewed vigour. 
John Sigismond was ever active and ever aggressive, and his opponent had at last 
no resource but to take arms for the defence of his share of the Hungarian territorj'. 
His forces under the command of two of the ablest generals of the day, Swendy 
and Count Salm, after recovering the captured places, reduced Tokay, Kovar, 
Erdad, and Bathor. Maximilian sent an embassy to Solyman, offering to 
continue the payment of the tribute, and demanding continuance of the truce 
concluded Avith his father. But the conditions proposed by the latter were 
too imperious to be accepted, and war again broke out with the Turks.( Solyman 
headed his army in person, and advancing towards the scene of hostilities, he 
was preparing to ascend the course of the Danube, Avhen the aggressions of 
the garrison of Zigeth, a toAvn on the frontiers of Sclavonia, who in a sally killed 
one of his favourite bashaws, induced him to select it as the first object of 
his vengeance. It lay in the midst of a marsh, and Avas approachable only by a 
narroAV causoAvay. The garrison consisting of but 3,000 men, Avas commanded by 
Nicholas, Count Zrinyi, the descendant of an illustrious Croat family, Avho 
resolved, feeble as Avere his means, to resist to the last extremity. The attack was 
commenced on the 6th of August, 1566, and at first was attended Avith partial 
success. \The Turks Avent through enormous labour, making roads across the 
marsh, and erecting huge mounds for the artillery, and succeeded in battering 
down the greater portion of the outer Avail, and after tAventy assaults, obtained 
possession of the old town, and forced the garrison to retire into the fortress. The 
number of the defenders Avere noAv reduced to six hundred, but such Avere their 
valour and fortitude, that they repulsed the Ottomans in a series of bloody combats. 
Solyman's patience Avas beginning to be exhausted. He called before him his 
principal bashaAVS, reproached them in the bitterest terms Avith coAvardice and 
incompetency, and threatened that, if they failed to take the citadel in the next 
attempt, he Avould cause their heads to be struck off, and march to the assault over 
their dead bodies. The ungovernable fury of his passion rendered vain both his 
threats and his promises.;^ He Avas seized that same night, (Sept. 4, 1566,) by an 
attack of apoplexy, AA'hich carried him off in the forty-sixth year of his reign, after 
a career of unexampled splendour and prosperity, during Avhich he raised Turkey 



176 HISTORY OF HUNGAKY. 

to a pitch, of power and pre-eminence, from which she has ever since been steadily 
declining. 

The death of their leader would have filled the Turkish soldiers with discou- 
ragement and consternation, and might perhaps have altogether marred the success 
of the enterprise, if the grand vizier, acting, it is said, upon his deceased master's 
instructions, had not taken effectual means to conceal it from them. The physi- 
cian who attended the sultan in his last moments, and the servants who waited upon 
him, were all strangled before ever they had quitted the tent, and the inanimate 
corpse, clothed in the imperial robes, was placed iipright upon a throne, the cur- 
tains Avere drawn aside, and the army, defiling before it at a distance, Avere animated 
and encouraged by the belief that the eye of their sovereign Avas upon them| The 
artillery, Avhich had been playing upon the castle Avithout intermission, had laid 
the interior in ruins, and had effected a Avide breach in the outer Avail. The 
enemy Avere preparing to storm it, Avhen a fire broke out Avhich consumed most of 
the provisions and ammunition, and buried a large number of the garrison in the 
ruins of their habitations. Of the six hundred Avho had survived the repeated 
attacks of the besiegers, there now remained but one hundred and seventy, exclusive 
of sick and Avounded. There Avas nothing left for these but death, — the speedier 
the better. Zrinyi drew them up in the courtyard, and appearing in full uniform, 
took of each an affectionate farcAvell, and draAving his sword, led them across the 
loAvered drawbridge, against the enemy. The Turks astonished at the temerity 
of the small party Avhich they saAv advancing, at first hung back fearing a stra- 
tagem, but at last became reassured and rushed to the attack. Zrinyi defended 
himself Avith courage and dexterity. A pike thrust in the breast caused him to 
Avaver for a moment, but he still fought on, sternly rejecting all offers of quarter. 
A bloAv of a sabre in the leg rendered him -unable to stand, and he then main, 
tained the combat on his knees, until at length he was laid prostrate by a musket 
ball passing through his head. All his folloAvers, except four Avho surrendered, 
died sAVord in hand u.pon the spot, and the Turks entering the fortress found nothing 
but blackened ruins to reAvard them for a siege of thirty-four days, and the loss of 
20,000 men.* jj 

During the greater part of this siege, two of the Austrian armies were encamped 
Avithin a short distance of Zigeth, and never moved to the assistance of the garrison, 
one of 10,000 men, under the Archduke Charles, and the other of 100,000, under 
the emperor himself, composed of volunteers from every country in Europe, and 
A^eteran soldiers Avho had been trained in the Avars of Charles V. Maximilian 
calmly remained upon the defensive, fearing to risk the safety of his forces in a 
pitched battle, Avhich, if the event proved adverse, might lay Hungary, and perhaps 
Austria, at the feet of the sultan. He recked little of the fate of the little 
garrison under Nicholas Zrinyi, but the bashaw of Buda had a better estimate of 

* History of tlie Troubles in Hungary, p. 328. 
t History of the Turks (Knolles's,) Art. Solyman the Magnificent. 



TREATY BETWEEN MAXIMILIAN AND THE SULTAN. 



177 



the loss the Austrian cause had sustained, when in forwarding the Zrinyi's head to 
Count Salm, he wrote, " As a proof of my generosity, I forward you the head of 
one of your greatest and bravest generals, whose loss you may long regret ; his 
remains have been interred with all the honours due to a hero." 

The inertness of the Austrian armies led also to the fall of Gyula, defended by 
Kerecsenyi, and a third of Hungary was soon laid open to the ravages of the 
Turks, Avho carried away 80,000 of the inhabitants into captivity. Two diets 
addressed remonstrances to the emperor upon this deplorable policy, and com- 
plained bitterly of the excesses and extortions of Swendy, the Austrian general, 
and of the violation of the constitution, daily perpetrated, in the appointment of 
foreigners to the highest offices of the state. Maximilian, however, turned a deaf 




STEPHEN BATHOKI. 



ear to their complaints, as he relied upon the renewal of the truce by the new 
sultan Selim. He was~not deceived. Negotiations were opened, Selim withdrew 
his armies, and the result was a treaty of peace, in which it was stipulated that 
John Sigismond should continue to be the waywode of the sultan and of the 
emperor in Transylvania ; that a half of Hungary Proper should continue in the 
possession of Maximilian, and that the other half, with Buda the capital, should 
be annexed as a dependent province to the Turkish empire. No sooner did the 
terms of this infamous bargain become known, than many of the principal magnates 
protested against it in the only way that the misfortunes of their country had left 
them — by retiring to their castles, and refusing to take any part in the transaction 
of public affairs. Others, possessing more fire and energy, passed into Transylvania, 

o 



178 ' HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

to the camp of George Btjcksai, and entered into a conspiracy for throwing ofTthfe- 
yoke of Maximilian. The plot was discovered and the authors banished, and this, 
failure, united with the intrigues of a confidant of John Sigismond, named Bekessi, 
Avho had secretly sold himself to the Austrians, induced Sigismond, at length, to; 
consent to enter into a treaty of peace, by which he agreed to renounce the title of 
king, and take that of most serene prince ; that Transylvania Proper should 
become his patrimony, and that portion of the frontier of Hungary which he then 
occupied should remain in his possession during his lifetime, but at his death 
should revert to the house of Austria ; and in case the sultan should refuse his 
consent to an agreement of which he had no cognisance, and shoiild expel him 
from his* dominions, th^e castle of Oppelen in Silesia should be his asylum ; and 
lastly, if he died without male issue, the states of Transylvania should elect a prince 
dependent upon Austria. 

Maximilian had in return promised him one of his nieces in marriage, and after- 
wards displayed some reluctance in giving consent. John insisting, new troubles 
were on the point of arising, when the dispute was ended by the death, some think 
violent, of the latter.* The Transylvanian diet chose, as his successor, Stephen 
Bathori, a man whose birth, eloquence, military services, and winning manners, 
disarmed all opposition from whatever quarter. Unfortiinately, however, his reign 
was not long confined to the narrow limits of Transylvania, and doubtless, Maxi- 
milian, when confirming his election, little foresaw that he would successfully 
compete against him for the crown of Poland. The house of Austria was already, 
by consecutive elections, for more than one himdred years in possession of the 
German empire. During the whole of that period, Hungary also occupied a pro- 
minent place in all its ambitious schemes. The desire of each monarch was to make 
that* kingdom, as Ferdinand had often decla^ftd it to be, hereditary in the family. 
This it was found impossible to accomplish, but in order to open the way to it, 
the father often took care to have his son elected during his lifetime. Ferdinand 
had in this Avay secured the succession to Maximilian, and Maximilian in like 
manner secured it to his son, Rodolph. But he pushed his plans of aggrandizement 
still farther, and pretended to have an incontestible right to the Polish crown, 
which had been left vacant by the voluntary abdication of Henry of Valois, who, 
on receiving the news of the death of his brother, Charles IX, fled precipitately 
from the kingdom, like a thief in the night. Some of the nobles were gained over 
and declared Maximilian king, but the diet meeting immediately after, pronounced 
their proceeding null and void, and elected Stephen Bathori in 1576. Maximilian 
never afterwards bore any good-will to the Poles ; and he would undoubtedly 
have shown it in a substantial manner, if his attention had not been absorbed by 
subjects of more pressing importance nearer home, Bathori appointed his brother 
Christopher to govern Transylvania as his lieutenant, and fixed his residence in 
Poland, 

* " Seufato, sen veneno, projicrata 7nors abstitlcrat." Floriis, Polon. de Porchit, lib. i. 



DEATH OF MAXIMILIAN AND OF BATHORI. 179 

Maximilian did not long survive to regret liis loss. His health had been for 
some time declining, and his death was hastened by anxiety and over-exertion. 
He expired at Rati sb on, where he had been holding a diet, October 12, 1576, in 
the fiftieth year of his age and the twelfth of his reign. He was, on the whole, 
a wise and just prince, though Coxe's panegyric is certainly open to doubt. "No 
stronger prooi," says he, " can be given of his amiable qualities, than the concur- 
ring testimonials of the historians of Germany, Hungary, Bohemia, and Austria, 
both catholics and protestants, Avho vie in his praises and in representing him as a 
model of impartiality, wisdom, and benignity ; and it was truly said of him, what 
'can be applied to few sovereigns, that in no one instance was he impelled, either 
by resentment or ambition, to act contrary to the strictest rules of moderation and 
justice, or to disturb the public tranquillity, Germany revived in his favour the 
surname of Titus, or the Delight of Mankind ; and if ever a Christian and 
philosopher filled the throne, that Christian and philosopher was Maximilian the 
Second."^' 

Bathori's reign was distinguished by wisdom, courage, and impartiality. He 
signed the Pacta Conventa, the imperious charter, or rather bond which the Polish 
nobles were in the habit of exacting from their kings, — and better still, he 
faithfully observed them. He subdued or conciliated the Austrian party, repressed 
the invasions of the Muscovites, changed the Cossacks from turbulent neighbours 
into useful allies, allayed the rancorous dissensions between the catholics and 
protestants,! reformed and purified the administration of justice. He was the 
constant benefactor of science and learning. He founded thejUniversity of Wilna, 
and stim.ulated the industry of the students by holding out to the most successful 
the prospect of honourable employment. He was himself a proficient in several 
languages, had a profound knowledge of history, and v/as master of a Latin style 
unequalled by that of any scholar in his kingdoni^for piirity and elegance. But 
by nothing was he so much distinguished as his spirit of enlightened religious 
toleration. This principle, so glorious in its results and so noble in its origin, has 
had greater difficulties to contend against, in obtaining a recognised place in the 
policy of human legislators, than any other. It^ has been fighting for existence 
since the world began, has outlived a thousand generations of its enemies, and 
will, in the long run, assuredly be triumphant. But a few hundred years ago, 
to recognise its truth, was a proof of extraordinary intelligence, sagacity, and 
foresight. Bathori acknowledged it in a saying as remarkable for its wisdom 
as for its high-toned piety, when urged to take severe measures, with the 
dissidents—" I reign over persons," said he, " but it is God who rules the 
conscience. God has reserved threes things to himself, — the creation of something 
out of nothing, the knowledge of futinity, and the government of the conscience," 
He died suddenly at Grodno, in 1586. 

* Coxe' House of Austria, vol. i., part ii. p. 648 — 9. 
t Dissidents they were called in Poland. 

o 2 



CHAPTER XV. 

TROUBLES UNDER KOPOLPJI IT.- — BOTSKAj's IKSUKEECIION. 

A.-D. 1586—1619. 

About the time of Stephen Bathori's death, two other sovereigns ascended the 
throne of their ancestors ; Amurath III. at Constantinople, and Rodolph II. at 
Vienna. The latter, as we have already said, was crowned by the Hungarian diet 
with great pomp at Presburg, in 1572, during his father's lifetime, and at his 
death entered upon the government of his dominions. Few men have ever been 
more wanting in the qualities needed by a ruler. He was vain, fickle, variable, 
and had a natural distaste for the duties of his office. Instead of devoting 
his chief attention to the cares of government, he principally occupied himself in 
the study of natural history, astronomy, and chemistry. He had been very 
intimate with Tycho Brahe, the celebrated astronomer, who, with all his talents, 
was weak enough to attach importance to alchemy and judicial astrology. By 
him Rodolph was warned that his life would be attempted by one of his own blood, 
and this prediction had a most powerful effect upon the weak mind of the king, 
and brought about that change in his character and habits, which, as will be seen, 
afterwards caused his downfal. 

His first object, on ascending the throne, was to secure his dominions against 
the attacks of the Turks, and for this purpose, and at the same time in order to 
diminish the enormous expense of keeping up the fortresses on the side of Croatia, 
he transferred that country as a fief of the empire to his uncle Charles, duke of 
Styria, who, from the proximity of his own diminions, would be better enabled to 
provide for its security. The fortress of Carlstadt, which afterwards became the 
capital of Croatia, a military station of the highest importance, was built by him. 
He also split up the frontier territory into a number of fiefs, which he bestowed upon 
all the vagabonds, marauders, and condottieri from all parts of Europe who chose 
to settle upon them, upon condition of doing military service against the Turks. 
These colonies gradually extended along the frontiers of Sclavonia and Croatia, 
and from them were drawn the ferocious hordes of irregular troops, known as 
Croats and Pandours,*-' by Avhich Austria was for a long time enabled to spread 

* " When leagu'd oppression poured to northern wars, 
Her whisker'd pandours and her fierce hussars." 

Campbell's Pleasures of Hope. 



WAR BETWEEN AUSTRIA AND TURKEY. 181 

terror among her neighbours, and which, even so late as 1849, played an 
important part in the army of the Ban Jellachich. Another nest of freebooters 
was established at Clissa, in Dalmatia, during the reign of Ferdinand, composed 
of christians Avho had been driven from those provinces which had been conquered 
by the Turks, and had settled in the Austrian territory. They received a settlement, 
upon condition of continually bearing arms against the infidels ; and so faithfully 
did they fulfil their mission, that under the name of Uscocks* they became the 
terror of the Ottomans. The latter, however, before long expelled them from their 
original seat. They then settled at Senga, in Croatia, on the coast of the Adriatic 
gulf, and here received a vast accession of strength and numbers from the Italian 
robbers and pirates. They now extended their ravages , to the sea, and their 
christian zeal diminishing as their forces and cupidity increased, they began to 
deal out equal treatment to all sects and nations, by plundering every ship that 
came in their way, to whomsoever it belonged. At . last the Turks determined to 
extirpate them. Predatory warfare was constantly raging on the frontiers : it was 
trifling in extent, and was winked at both in Austria and Constantinople, because 
both governments looked upon it as encouraging the growth of a military spirit 
among their subjects ; but the outrages committed by the Uscocks were too great 
to be overlooked. The truce concluded between Amurath and Rodolph was 
accordingly broken by the former in 1 59 1 . The bashaw of Bosnia invaded Croatia, 
captured the fortresses of Wihitz and Petrina, and in the following year laid siege 
to Siseck. The Austrians here attacked them and defeated them with a loss of 
12,000 men, amongst whom were the bashaw himself and a nephew of the sultan. 
Amurath was enraged beyond measure at this disaster ; formally declared war, 
and crossed the frontiers of Hungary and Croatia at the head of a numerous army. 
The two following j-ears were passed in sanguinary hostilities, but the Turks had 
the advantage by taking Siseck and Raab. In 1595, however, the tide of success 
again turned in favour of the Austrians, and the cause of this brings us back to 
the affairs of Transylvania. 

On the removal of Bathori to Poland the government of the province had 
been committed to his brother Christopher. He in his turn transmitted it 
to his own son Sigismond, at his death, in 1582; placing the latter, who 
was but an infant, under the protection of the Porte. Sigismond, when he 
came of age, managed for some . time to balance the influence of Turkey and 
Austria, one against the other, with great adroitness. The diplomacy of the 
latter, at length, however, proved triumphant. Sigismond concluded an alliance, 
defensive and off'ensive, with Rodolph ; he was to retain Transylvania as an 
independent principality, that part of Hungary which was still in his possession, 
Moldavia and Wallachia, and to hold the rank of a German prince. Any 
territory which might be wrested from the Turks, or others, was to be equally 
divided ; and if Bathori should be expelled from his dominions, he was to receive 

* Wanderers. 



182 HISTORY OF HXJNGAItY. 

compensation in some other quarter, and if he died without male issue, his 
inheritance reverted to the house of Hapsburg, and the alliance was strengthened 
by his marriage with Christina, daughter of the duke of Styria. 

Austria was thus delivered from all fears on the side of Transylvania ; she had 
lost an enemy and gained a friend, and was now enabled to pursue the war against 
Turkey with redoubled vigour : in it Sigismond distinguished himself by his 
romantic bravery. By uniting his forces with those of the waywodes of Moldavia 
and Wallachia, who had acknowledged his supremacy, he was enabled ito defeat 
the grand vizier, recapture Turgovitz, and send the Ottoman armies in full retreat 
towards Constantinople. The Austrians, thus aided, were likewise successful, and 
distinguished their arms by the taking of Visegrad and Gran-*' (Sep. 6, 1595). 

Mahomet, the son and successor of Amurath, thought it was now high time to 
take the field. He entered Hungary at the head of his forces, took Erlau, 
defeated the Archduke Maximilian, and had he not been prevented by the 
approach of winter, he would have carried his arms into Upper- Hungary, and 
Austria itself. In the following season, however, the sultan was unable to tear 
himself away from the allurements of the harem, and for the next two years the 
campaigns were little else than a succession of desultory skirmishes, which, while 
they contributed nothing either way to the final decision of the contest, had a 
terrible and disastrous effect upon the country, by destroying all security for life 
or property, and exposing the peaceable or helpless inhabitants to the violence 
and outrages of a brutal and licentious soldiery. In 1596, Sigismond, always 
acting under the influence af caprice, gave up his territory to Rodolph in exchange 
of Oppelen and Ratibor, and an annual pension. The emperor was acknow- 
ledged by the States, and sent his brother Maximilian to act as his governor ; 
but no sooner had he arrived than Sigismond changed his mind, and once more 
reappeared in Transylvania. In 1599 he again became disgusted by the troubles 
attached to his office, and once more abdicated, but this time retired into Poland, 
where he resided with his brother-in-law the great chancellor Zamoiski. He had 
transferred the government of Transylvania to his uncle Andrew, the cardinal 
archbishop of Wermia, v/ho,_ however, was speedily dispossessed by Michael, the 
waywode of Wallachia. The latter had throvfn off his allegiance,, and again 
joined the Turks, immediately after Sigismond's first resignation. He was gained 
over by the emperor, and joined his forces with those of the imperialists, for the 
purpose of expelling Andrew, who, in the conflict, was defeated and killed. 
Michael now laid claim to the jjrincipality on his own behalf, and in his turn was 
routed by the Austrian general Basta. Sigismond seized this opportunity of once 
more reappearing upon the scene of his former exploits. Michael now united his 
forces with those of his enemies, against the new competitor, and Bathori was 
totally routed with the loss of 10,000 men. Basta then caused Michael to be 
asscissinated, and another treaty was entered into with Sigismond, by which he 

* Coxe's House of Austria, cli, xlii. 



SUCCESS OF THE HUNGARIANS AGAINST THE TURKS. 183 

agreed to retire to Lobcovitz, in Bohemia, Avith an annual pension from the 
emperor. The remainder of his life was passed in tranquillity till his death 
in 1613.''- 

The war between the Austrians and Turks had in the meantime been raging in 
Hungary with unabated fury. Ferat Pasha had just returned from a campaign in 
Persia, and was sent to take the command of Buda, that by following up the 
attacks upon the christians, he might occupy the attention of the janizzaries, 
whose turbulent and mutinous spirit had already made them the dread and terror 
of their own government. Croatia now became the principal theatre of their 
ravages ; and, notwithstanding, the devotion of the people to the house of 
Hapsburg, they found themselves abandoned, without aid or pity, to a cruel and 
relentless enemy. Relief, at last, came from Hungary. During the whole of 
these troubles many of the magnates and nobles of the latter country, paying no 
attention to the disputes between the diet and Austria, devoted their lives and 
fortunes to carrying on a crusade against the Turks ; and, from year to year, 
amidst all changes and reverses, remained constantly in arms at the head of their 
vassals. Foremost in valour and energy, at this period, were Nicholas Palfi, 
George Zrinyi, and Forgatz. After having driven the Ottomans from several 
towns, Palfi, under the orders of Schwartenburg, laid siege to Arabon. Upon 
summoning the pasha who commanded tlie place to surrender, the latter replied, 
that when the weathercock, on the spire of a neighbouring church, was heard to 
crow thrice, the Hungarians might begin to hope to take the place, but not till then. 
Within a few hours afterwards, the principal gate was blown open by a petard, 
and Palfi entering at the head of his followers, routed the Turks with great 
slaughter (1598). The town of Pesth, feebly defended, was likewise captured by 
the Austrian forces under Russvarm, aided by a great crowd of Hungarian officers. 
The general result of all this warfare was not, however, very advantageous to 
either party. Mahomet HI., the sultan, was too much occupied by troubles in 
Asia, and intrigues and conspiracies in his own capital, to be able to carry it on 
with vigour or energy. The imperialists, on the other hand, were disabled by the 
want of money, which rendered it necessary to disband the troops at the end of 
each campaign, so that in the beginning of every spring, a new force had to be 
raised, composed of raw levies, who knew nothing of war and were unused to the 
climate and diet of Hungary. 

It Was upon the Hungarians themselves, upon the farmers and peasants, and 
country gentlemen, who each year saw their fields desolated, their substance 
Avasted, their houses plundered, their wives and daughters insulted or led into 
captivity by one or other of the contending parties, whose sleep after days of 
watching and anxiety was filled with troubled dreams, and who rose every 
morning with terror and foreboding, that the burden of the war fell. The 
youth of the country, as fast as they grew to man's estate, flung away their 

* Isthuaufius, lib. Xxii. xxiii. 



184 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 



lives and energies in this disastrous contest, and left crowds of widows and 
orphans in the towns, and villages, and castles. And all these sacrifices and 
trials, terrible as they were, were borne with unfaltering courage and constancy. 
Murmurs and complaints against Austria, in truth, there were many ; for 
her object was clearly the overthrow of the national institutions, and the 
absolute and entire subjugation of the inhabitants of every rank. But there 
were no reproaches ever cast upon the supine indifference of the other nations 
of Europe, who, for two centuries, beheld a gallant people combatting the 
advances of Islamism with a heroism and devotion which has few parallels in. 




NICHOLAS PALFI. 



history, in the noble and successful effort to save Christendom from forcible 
imposition of a fatalist creed, which must have stayed the progress of civilizar 
tion and paralyzed the energies of the west. From protracting this conflict 
the Magyars themselves had little to hope. A peace under Turkish rule would, 
at least, have brought security to life and property. A peace under Austria 
promised no more — haidly so much. This long and bloody war was waged 
in obedience to higher instincts than those which prompt men to seek material 
comfort or prosperity ; those which teach them that there are worse evils than 
death, or poverty, or exile, than captivity or imprisonment, — the degradation 



RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 185 

attendant upon forgetfnlness of glorious traditions, and the dishonour of flinching 
from the performance of a duty which Providence, when it placed them on the 
confines of Christendom and civilization, had clearly marked out. The march of 
the nation in this era of blood and violence was marked every step by unheard-of 
suffering, and self-sacrifice, and devotion. The history of each family became a 
romance in itself — full of moving incidents, hairbreadth escapes, stern tragedy, 
and noble endurance. 

Rodolph had long lost the confidence of his Hungarian subjects. He never, 
as was the custom with former sovereigns, made his appearance at the sittings of 
the diet, nor paid any attention whatever to the internal affairs of the country. 
He placed foreigners in the chief civil and military employments, and he suffered 
the ofiice of palatine, to the due administration of which the Hungarians attached 
great importance, to remain unfilled after the occurrence of the first vacancy 
during his reign. The complaints and remonstrances of the diet were treated with 
contempt or indifference ; and the German troops whom he called to his aid were 
a more dreadful scourge than the janizzaries of the sultan.* By his own narrow- 
minded religious bigotry he now introduced new complications into the long- 
standing quarrel between him and his subjects. To enable the reader to 
understand the merits of this new dispute, we must digress a little, 
. The ancient laws of Hungary entailed severe penalties upon any one who 
attempted to introduce or inculcate, within the kingdom, any doctrine contrary to 
those established by St. Stephen when he embraced Christianity. It was in 
conformity with these enactments that Louis II. and John, upon the requisition 
of the diet, condemned to be burnt all those innovators who, under the name of 
Lutherans, had appeared in large numbers, not only in Germany, but in all the 
adjacent countries.! Ferdinand of Austria, however, gave proof of good sense 
or moderation in not following their example. Religious dissensions were at that 
time raging in his German dominions, and it required all the skill and management 
he had at command to soothe them ; and, doubtless, the fear of offending the 
protestant party in the German States had much to do with his leniency towards 
their confreres in Hungary ; but, nevertheless, his conduct in this regard fully 
entitled him to the praise of history. He confined his attention solely 
to the preservation of his secular power, and the repression of the conspi- 
racies which arose from time to time against his authority ; and suffered the 
various sects to propagate their doctrines in whatever manner pleased them. He 
gave a signal proof of his toleration in 1561. In that year a great number of 
Hungarian protestants assembled at Agvia, for . the purpose of making a public 
profession of their faith. Ferdinand feared that it was a meeting of conspirators 
■ against the government, and hastened thither to disperse them ; but on learning 

* Coxe's History of the House of Austria, chap. xlii. p. 635. 
t Art. liv. of the year 152-3, and Ait, v. of the diet of 1524. 



186 HISTORY OF HTTNGARY. 

on the way the real nature of the convention, he turned back and suffered them to 
proceed without molestation. "'•' 

Maximilian followed the same course. If the protestants were faithful to his 
government they were sure of his protection ; but all this favour and toleration 
was rendered utterly worthless—" a mockery, a delusion, and a snare " — by the 
establishment in the kingdom of their most implacable enemies, the Jesuits. The 
encouragement bestowed upon the latter, the attention paid to all their maxims, 
filled the Lutherans with a feeling of uncertainty and insecurity, and straitened 
them in the exercise of their religious worship. The Jesuits very speedily 
performed their usual feat of worming themselves into the highest ofiices of the 
state, and managed ere long to obtain great influence over the councils of the 
prelates and magnates ; and it may be readily believed that this was invariably 
exerted for the damage and detriment of the new religion and its professors^ 
Rodolph did not, by any means, follow a consistent course with regard to them. 
At first he openly favoured them, despite the complaints of the clergy ; but in 
1 604, to appease these very murmurs, all the rigour of the old law was put in 
force, 

Cassau, a seat of government in Upper Hungary, was the first place in which 
these barbarous decrees were carried out. It was remarkable for the number, 
industry, and prosperity of its protestant inhabitants; but neither peaceable 
demeanour nor honest toil could save them from the lawless violence of those in 
power. Twenty villages belonging to the town were occupied for the maintenance 
of the military. The governor Belgoioso expelled them from their church, pro- 
hibited the exercise of their worship, and added insult to injury by parading the 
streets with executioners in his train, aiid inflicting instant punishment upon all. 
who murmured against his brutality. 

Things were in this position when a diet was convoked at Presburg, ostensibly 
to consider the best means of making head against the Turks. The deputies of 
the states, however, seized the opportunity of demanding a redress of grievances, 
before proceeding to the transaction of any business v/hatever. Some complained 
of the outrages of the foreign troops; others of the bestowal of the offices arid 
dignities of the state upon strangers ; and others sought reparation for injuries 
inflicted vipon themselves or their families during the war. The protestants, 
relying upon the toleration granted by Frederick, and the positive edicts issued in 
their favour by Maximilian, declared that they had an established position in the 
kingdom which the laws had recognised, and complained of the'persecutions at 
Cassau. But all joined in the standing, repeated, and now time-honoured 
declaration, that " Besides various kinds of death and violence which they had 
to fear from the Turks, his majesty's troops were the cause of incredible evils to 
the whole kingdom." The court of Vienna, which has been ever remarkable for 

* Letter of tlie Protestants of Hungary, dated from Agria, 6th. February, 1662, recorded in 

the Hist. Diplom. part i. p. 39. 



BOTSKAI'S INSURRECTION. ISt 

its tenacity in carrying out what it has once taken in hand, thought that by 
temporizing, the fervour of the malcontents would cool down. The grievances 
complained of were, therefore, laid aside for examination at a more convenient 
season ; but in the meantime Rodolph poured out his vengeance upon the 
protestants, by issuing a decree, in 1604, which rebuked them in severe terms for 
interrupting the transaction of public business, and forbade the diet, henceforth and 
for ever, to discuss questions affecting religion. Some private individuals were, 
at the same time, singled out for more siibstantial marks of disapprobation. 

All this added fresh fuel to the flame of discontent which had been already 
kindled. An appeal to arms was now the only resource, and looking around for 
a leader, the choice of the insurgents fell upon Stephen Botskai, the principal 
magnate of Upper Hungary, and the uncle of Sigismond Bathori, a man of great 
eloquence, courage, and military skill. He had made frequent visits to Prague, 
to represent to Ferdinand in person the deplorable situation of the country ; but 
he had never been admitted to the royal presence or even that of the minister, 
but was suffered to stand for hours in the antechamber, exposed to the insults of 
the court minions.* Such treatment naturally had the effect of irritating and 
enraging him to the last degree, alnd his resentment was still further increased 
when, on his return home, he found that Belgoioso had ransacked his castle and 
laid waste his estates during his absence. He instantly issued a spirited 
proclamation, setting forth the grievances under which the nation laboured, and 
called upon the people to wrest by force of arms those measures of redress which 
had been denied to remonstrance and entreaty. Crowds of volunteers instantly 
flocked to his standard from every side, of all ranks, nobles as well as peasants. 
Great numbers of heyducs, as the head foot-soldiers in the imperial service were 
called, were scattered over the country, after having been disbanded. All these 
flocked to join, upon being promised four crowns a month and as much booty as 
they could obtain on the estates of the Austrian partizans. Six thousand of them 
deserted in a body from the Austrian army and joined him. On receiving 
intelligence of the outbreak, Belgoioso, the imperial general, immediately 
prepared to march to suppress it ; but the heyducs in his army all deserted to 
join their brethren, and the Germans were consequently defeated with great 
slaughter, and the loss of two of their generals. Basta, Rodolph's lieutenant in 
Transylvania, sought in vain to persuade Botskai by fair means to lay dovv^n his arms 
and disband his forces. The latter expressed his willingness on several occasions to 
do so, if the government of Transylvania were committed to his hands alone, and 
that of Hungary to a native of the country, as also the command of all the 
garrisons ; if no Walloon or French soldiers should ever be admitted into 
Hungary ; if the German troops should be compelled to confine themselves to 
their quarters, and prevented from harassing and plundering the poor country- 
people in their vicinity ; if the authors of all past outrages should be delivered up 

* Coxe's History -of the House of Austria, ch, xlii. 



188 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 



to the proper authorities, to receive the punishment due to their offences ; if the 
emperor should appear in person at the sittings of the diet ; and if the free 
exercise of his religion were granted to every one, , These conditions were all 
refused by Basta, and the war continued. The leading adherents of Botskai all 
assembled on the 29th of March, 1605, in the castle of Szerencza, where all the great 
families of the patriotic party were represented by one or oth^ of their respective 
members — the Bethlens, the Rakoczis, the Drugets, the Toroks, and the Szecsis. 
Their chief was here proclaimed prince (^fejedelem), and found his strength greatly 
increased by a considerable accession of forces from Transylvania. After the 




THE HUNGARIAN CKOWN. 



assassination of Michael, the waywode of Wallachia, and the abdication of 
Sigismond Bathori, Basta, the imperial general, had taken possession of the 
entire province, received the allegiance of the natives, and, in the emperor's name, 
confirmed all their rights and privileges. He did not long observe them, however, 
and the ferocious cruelty which characterized his administration soon drove the 
people into insurrection. They chose a magnate named Moses Tekeli, who, with 
several others, had taken refuge among the Turks, to act as their leader. Tekeli 
entered the country at the head of a large auxiliary force of Turks and Tartars, 
was joined by the inhabitants, took the principal fortresses, and was soon after 



SUCCESSES OF B0TS3CAI. 189 

elected and proclaimed prince of Transylvania. Before the Germans were 
completely expelled, however, he was attacked, defeated, and killed, by the new 
Avaywode of Wallachia. His followers then dispersed or went into exile, and 
the country once more lay at the mercy of Basta. Under his rule it again 
became the scene of all the horrors which military despotism, famine, and disease 
could produce. The terrible results which Sheridan ascribed to the British 
rule in the province of Oude, after the death- of Sujah Dowla, were here to 
be seen on every side — " plains unclothed and brown, villages depopulated and in 
ruins, churches unroofed and perishing, vegetables burnt up and extinguished;" 
as if some monster had stalked across the length and breadth of the land, 
tainting and poisoning with pestiferous breath what his voracious appetite could 
not devour. All traces of industry or civilization disappeared : the inhabitants 
lay in the ruins of their dwellings, whining and greedy skeletons. Corn was 
sold at its Aveight in gold ; the horses and dogs were greedily consumed, and 
at last the putrid bodies of the dead were torn from their graves, and the 
pestilence brought on by the wretched sustenance thus aiforded, finished the work 
Avhich famine and the SAVord had begun.* The remnant Avho, on the death of 
Tekeli, had sought refuge across the frontier, noAV appealed to Botskai to put an 
end to these horrors, and, under the command of Gabriel Bethlen, ranged them- 
selves under his standard. 

Assisted by the Turks, both Avith men and money, Botskai speedily expelled 
the Austrians from Transylvania, and returning victorious into Hungary, Avas 
received by the Turkish army on the plains of Rakos Avith royal honours.. Achmet, 
the sultan, sent him a club, a sabre, and a standard ; and the grand vizier placed 
on his head a royal diadem, Avhich had been Avorn by the despots of Servia, and 
proclaimed him king of Hungary, and prince of Transylvania. Botskai, hoAvever, 
was too patriotic or too prudent to accept from the Turks honours Avhich the nobles 
of his own country alone had the right to confer, and Avhich, if received from the 
Ottomans, would render him dependent. upon them. He declared, therefore, that 
he looked upon' them as but proofs of the sultan's friendship, and as a means of 
recovering the liberties of his countrymen. He noAv prosecuted the campaign 
Avith ^vigour. Szathmar, Hust, Newheisel, Nitria, and almost all the posts of 
Upper Hungary speedily fell into his hands ; while the Turks, profiting by these 
troubles, took Gran, Visegrad, and Novigrad, and his irregular troops threatened 
Styria and Moravia. The country Avas noAV in a deplorable state. The emperor's 
soldiers plundered for Avant of pay, and the heyducs because it Avas their habit. 
The peasantry in many places had wholly abandoned their habitations and fled to 
the mountains or into Poland, often dying of hunger on the way. The flocks and 
herds were abandoned ; all cultivation or tillage ceased. Austria itself was not 
much better off". The Turks and Hungarians ravaged it Avithout scruple or 
remorse. From the towers of the churches at Vienna, fifteen toAvns or villages 

* KnoUes's History of the Turks, art. Achmet, 



190 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

might be seen on fire, all at once, in the surrounding country, lighted either^ 
by the rebels or the emperor's own soldiers."^* Everywhere was confusion and 
disorder. 

During all this time Rodolph displayed the utmost apathy and indifference. It 
was his intolerance and bigotry Avhich had kindled the flame, but he left it to 
other hands to extinguish it. While the Turks and Hungarians were ravaging his 
dominions, he was secluded in his palace at Prague, pursuing his favourite studies, 
surrounded by astrologers, chemists, painters, turners, engravers, and mechanics. 
He became irritable almost to frenzy, drove his confidential ministers from his 
presence, and suffered himself to be guided entirely by his mistresses, whom he 
changed Avith every moon,-'' He had a brother Mathias, Avho was as much 
distinguished by his vigour, activity, talent, and magnanimity, as he for his 
indolence, sloth, and suspiciousness of temperament. E.odolph feared and 
persecuted him ; his early life was one of trial and vicissitude, but his abilities 
gradually asserted themselves, and he Avas at last, appointed to the governorship 
of Hungary, Avhere he greatly distinguished himself against the Turks. In 1605 
he became heir presumptive to Rodolph by the death of his brother Ernest. 
Rodolph, however, still refused to allot him a proper establishment, or permit him 
to marry ; but Mathias bore all these slights and insults Avith patience and good 
temper, and used every means to make himself popular Avith all parties, both in 
Hungary and in Austria. As Rodolph sunk into contempt and ridicule, he rose in 
importance; and in the commencement of the year 1606, Avhen the Austrian 
monarchy seemed on the point of dissolution, the other members of the Hapsburg 
family acknoAvledged him the head of the house, and promised him their support 
and assistance in all things. Before, however, taking any decisive steps for taking 
possession of the croAvn, he determined to use his best endeavours- to restore peace 
in Hungary. For this purpose he gained over Illeshinsky, Botskai's prime minister, 
and by his adAdce offered his master most liberal terms, from the knoAvledge that 
he Avas labouring under a m_ortal disease. Peace Avas, therefore, concluded upon the 
foUoAving terms : — " First, that the question of religious toleration should remain in 
the same state as in the reigns of Ferdinand and Maximilian, and that' the arbitrary 
clause introduced into the decrees by Rodolph should be suppressed ; secondly, 
that Mathias should be lieutenant-general of the kingdom, having under his orders 
the palatine still to be elected ; thirdly, that Botskai should preserve the title of 
prince of Transylvania and a part of Hungary ; and fourthly, that on the failure of 
his male issue, these territories should revert to the house of Austria." To these 
special articles a general clause Avas added, declaring that the king should hereafter 
observe the ancient laAvs and immunities of the kingdom ; that the palatine should 
be elected by the Hungarians, in the manner prescribed by the laAvs ; that the 
governments, the administration of the finances, and all other charges and ofiices 
Avhatsoever, should be confided to the Hungarians ; that all property pledged to 

* History of the Turks, art. Achmet, ;jffssw«. 



DEPOSITION OF RODOLPH. 191 

foreigners should be redeemed, and that all foreigners should be required to take 
their departure. 

A truce of twenty years was, at the same time, concluded with the Turks, on 
eondition that both parties should remain in possession of the territories which 
they then held ; and the dishonourable tribute which the two preceding Austrian 
sovereigns had been paying to the Porte was to cease by the presentation to the 
sultan of a voluntary gift of 200,000 dollars. This treaty, at last, restored peace 
to Hungary, but at the expense of her unity and independence. Some idea may 
be formed of the state of weakness and lassitude to Avhich these long wars had 
reduced the country — a century before so powerful — by a statement of the divisions 
into which it had been split up by the various factions. 

Hungary with Croatia, Sclavonia, and the frontiers, was then reckoned to cover 
an area of 4,427 square miles, and Transylvania one of 736. Of these 5,163 miles 

Turkey possessed -*.._-. 1,859 

Botskai in Hungary - 1,346 "i _ 089 

in Transylvania 736 ) ' " 

And Austria only 1,222 

Total 5,163'" 

Botskai died in 1606, and was succeeded by Sigismond Rakoczi, who, however, 
soon abdicated in favour of Gabriel Bathori, 

This treaty, called the " Pacification of Vienna," Avas concluded on the 23rd of 
June, 1606, by the Archduke Mathias and by the ministers of Botskai. It had 
the force of law in Hungary, and was inserted in the body of laws under the 
above title. The emperor ratified it in the August following, but not without 
much delay and great reluctance. Although he had given Mathias full power to 
conclude it, he expressed himself greatly dissatisfied with its tenour, and even 
went so far as to call a diet of the empire to demand succours for continuing the 
war. He had doubtless discovered the secret compact which had been entered 
into between Mathias and the other princes of the family, and his jealousy being 
roused, he began to use every means in his power to bring about his destruction 
or downfal. By a series of intrigues, he managed to separate the interests of his 
other kinsmen from those of his brother ; and the latter, at last saw that if he 
meant to accomplish his schemes, there was no resource left but an appeal to force. 
Before resorting to open violence, however, he took every means to avoid all risk 
of failure. He summoned a meeting of the Plungarian states at Presburg, 
conciliated the protestants by a confirmation of all their rights, and induced them 
to enter into a confederation with deputies of Austria, binding themselves to con^ 
sider as enemies all who should ofifer any opposition to the Pacification of Vienna. 
They granted him troops ; he marched into Bohemia : and Rodolph, after a feeble 
resistance, found himself abandoned by all his supporters, and compelled to resign 

* La Hongrie Historique, p. 163. 



192 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 



into the hands of Mathias, Hungary, Austria, and Moravia, and to guarantee to 
him the succession to the crown of Bohemia ; Mathias in the meantime bearing the 
title of king elect of that kingdom, with the consent of the states. Rodolph, 
at the same time delivered up the Hungarian regalia, which for some time past 
had been kept at Prague. 

The reputation which Mathias had acquired in the Hungarian wars, the evident 
superiority to his brother in all the qualities which form a ruler which he had 
displayed, and the repeated attempts which Rodolph had made for the destruction 




GEORGE THURZO. 

of their liberties, made the Hungarians hail the change with delight ; Mathias [X-' 
was, therefore, elected and crowned with great pomp and solemnity. But the diet, 
with a wise indifference to the glare of fetes and pageantry, determined not to lose 
sight of the opportunity which was now afforded them, of recovering and securing 
their rights and privileges. All their demands were therefore drawn up in a 
regular capitulation, and presented to the new king for his consent, and Mathias 
yielding to necessity, assented to their proposals and signed a compact containing 
the following stipulations: — 1. Religious liberty was guaranteed to all. 2. The 
king should propose to the diet four candidates for the office of palatine, two 



DIPLOMA SIGNED BY MATHIAS. 



193 




GABRIEL BETHLEM. 



catholics and two protestants, one of whom the diet should elect. 3. The crown 
and regalia should be committed to the keeping of two laymen. 4. The Chamber 
of Finances of Hungary should be independent of that of Austria, and be presided 

P 



194 HISTORY OF HUNGARY, 

over by a native of the country. 5. The Jesuits could not possess real property in 
the country. 6. All offices and employments should be filled by natives. 7. The 
king should reside in the country, and during his temporary absence should be 
represented by the palatine, -svho should be gifted with full powers, Sec." If these 
conditions were considered exorbitant, Mathias did wrong in accepting them if 
he afterwards had any intention of making efforts to evade them. But as the 
emissaries of Rodolph were busy in the diet bidding against him for popular 
favour, he had neither time for consideration nor for hesitation. 

The catholic priesthood no sooner heard of the concessions which had been 
made to protestantism and religious liberty, than they commenced to storm and 
protest. At the head of this party was Peter Pazmany, the archbishop of 
Strigonia, and through his influence every effort was made to rouse the coarse 
passions and prejudices of the multitude against the Lutherans. Their intrigues 
were counteracted, hov/ever, by the firmness and ability of George Thurzo, the 
palatine, himself a protestant. He was not content, however, with protecting 
their freedom in Hungary only. He induced the diet to interfere with the emperor 
on behalf of Austria, which was then torn by religious dissensions. In Croatia, 
however, he was less fortunate, Protestantisna had there never made much 
progress. The people were of a coarse and superstitious temperament, and were 
in complete subjection to the priests. They declared, " that they would sooner 
separate from Hungary than have their country invaded by that abominable pest 
called Lutheranism."*-' The clergy, always indefatigable, patient, and persevering, 
when the interests of their own order are in danger, lost no opportunity of stirring 
up discontent in the minds of their adherents, and new fuel was added to the 
flame which they had kindled, by the outbreak of another revolution in Transyl- 
vania. Gabriel Bathori, who had succeeded Sigismond Bathori on the throne of 
the principality, had suffered his licentiousness to tempt him into insulting the 
Avives of some of the nobles, who instantly fell upon him and murdered him ; and 
in his place Gabriel Bethlem, a brave warrijDr and an able statesman, was 
unanimously elected, with the consent and approbation of the sultan. Under his 
government his dominions enjoyed a full measure of peace and tranquillity, and 
began to recover from the horrible devastations of preceding years. He did not, 
however, assume his dignity without dispute, Transylvania had been secured to 
the house of Austria, on the death of Botskai, by the Pacification of Vienna, 
and Mathias was, of course, now anxious to enforce his rights, and he considered 
the present opportunity (1617) favourable, as the Turks were engaged in wars on 
the side of Asia and Poland. Pie therefore summoned a diet of the empire, to 
the throne of which he had succeeded in 1612 by the death of Ptodolph, for the 
purpose of obtaining succours to enforce the fulfilment of the treaty of Vienna, 
and to expel the Turks from Moldavia and Wallachia, where they had recently 
established waywodes dependent on the Porte. But the diet refused all aid. The 

* Fessler's History oi'tlie Hamgarians, vol. vii. p. 679. 



DEATH OF MATHIAS. 



195 



protestants were dissatisfied with his conduct towards them, and succeeded in 
outvoting his adherents. He met with no better success on applying to a general 
assembly of the states of the whole of his dominions, and at last was obliged to 
save his dignity by taking advantage of the presence of Turkish ambassadors in 
Vienna, to conclude a peace with the sultan for a further period of twenty years, 
Avith additional explanatory articles, and no mention being made in it of- Tran- 




GEOKGE BOTSKAI. 



sylvania, the^right^ o^ Gabriel Bethlem were thus tacitly recognised. Mathias 
died soon afterTiTrTBTlO, leaving his crown to his cousin, Ferdinand II. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

WAES OF GABKIEL EETHLEM AND rEEDINAND 11. AND III. 
A.D. 1619 — 1654. 

A MAN less qualified for the duties of the office he was called upon to administer, 
probably could not have been found in the whole range of the Austrian dominions, 
than Ferdinand II. When he was elected to fill the throne he found the state 
labouring in the throes of a religious revolution, his subjects divided into two great 
parties of polemical combatants, who made every town, and even house, an arena 
f jr their ferocious and fanatical quarrels. The safety — nay the very existence — of 
the Church of Rome was threatened. The rise of the reformation had astonished 
her ; its successes had exasperated and alarmed her. There was no engine of 
fraud or violence that was not put in motion to crush it at once and for ever. 
The new doctrines were rushing over her domains like a flood, obliterating all 
the old bulwarks, which she had erected in a thousand years of conquest, to 
circumscribe and extirpate freedom of thought. Reason had long ceased to 
be her friend ; for centuries before she had declared war against it as a traitor 
to God, and the handiwork of the devil, with which no good christian, could 
have any dealings without running the risk of an eternity of roasting. She 
therefore, bid complete defiance to it ; and it, in its turn, never worked but for her 
damage and detriment. She had gone on building her claims on tradition, till 
tradition, like an ancient pile, began to topple and give way, amidst the jeers and 
laughter of the profane heretics, who could see no necessary connexion between 
truth and antiquity. Long trained in habits of command, accustomed to implicit 
obedience, on j)roceeding to punish the rebellion of the deserters, she was 
astonished to find force repelled by force, authority by argu.ment. The course of 
a prince who found himself called upon to arbitrate between her and her revolted 
subjects, was sufliciently clear to any mind which prejudice or the spirit of jDarty had 
not clouded. He should have proclaimed liberty of conscience to all, and con- 
tented himself with confining the combatants to a war of words, and preventing 
their dogmas merging by an easy transition into blows. He should have raised the 
law out of the mire of faction, and abashed the howlin^bigots by placing them 
face to face with justice— calm, passionless, inflexible. He should have made 
security for life and property independent of all opinions, and paid no more 
attention to the thunders of Rome than to the rancorou^ denunciations of the 
Lutherans. The former had no vested interest in men's opmions-— she might as 
well talk of a vested interest in a wave of the ocean ; and tha, latter, in claiming 




COMMENCEMENT OF THE THIRIY YEiillS WAE. 197 

full liberty for themselves, were bound, as a duty of prime importance, to respect 
the liberty and the convictions of others. 

Instead of being a mediator between these parties, Ferdinand showed himself, 
from the first moment of his reign, a violent and unscrupulous partisan. His 
mother was a pious catholic ; his guardians the archdukes Ernest and Maximilian, 
who had charge of him after his father's death, Avere bigoted catholics; and he 
completed his education at the university of Ingolstadt, under the care of the 
Jesuits, and came out a full-blown bigot. He declared that had he been as free 
as his brothers, he would have entered the order ; but without submitting himself 
to their rules, he possessed a full measure of the intolerance and hatred to 
protestantism which at that time characterised them. He frequently declared 
that he would sooner live with his family in banishment, or beg his bread from 
door to door, and submit to every possible injury and insult, than yield an inch of 
ground to the perverse principles of Lutheranism, When he ascended the throne, 
he refused to confirm the privileges which his father Charles had granted to the 
protestants of his dominions in Styria. He made a pilgrimage to Loretto, and 
vowed on his knees before the image not to desist from his effbrts until he had 
extirpated heresy in his dominions ; and at Rome his zeal was fired and confirmed 
by consecration at the hands of Pope Clement VHI. On his return, he banished 
all protestant preachers and schoolmasters. In place of protestant seminaries, he 
founded colleges of Jesuits ; and commissioners, by his orders, traversed the whole 
country, restoring the old churches to the catholics, and demolishing the new ones 
and the school-houses which the reformers had erected. Notwithstanding their 
knowledge of his antecedents, little opposition, strange to say, was off'ered to his 
election in liohemia, and still less in Hungary. He was crowned at Presburg in 
1618, as successor to Mathias. The latter died in March, 1619, leaving the 
whole of his dominions in a state of terrible agitation : and when Ferdinand 
ascended the three thrones to which he had succeeded, he saw nothing around 
but discord and rebellion. The protestants were everywhere ready to take up 
arms for the defence of their rights, which Ferdinand, during the latter years of 
Mathias's reign, had grossly outraged. The storm was already brewing, which, 
when it burst, raged for thirty years in the celebrated Avar, Avhich during nearly 
the whole of that period turned the fairest countries of Europe into a smoking 
battlefield ; but Avhich has derived interest, and even lustre, in the eyes of the 
present generation from its forming the subject of tAvo of the finest productions of 
Schiller's pen.* 

The German protestants rose in insurrection under the celebrated count*rhurn, 
a man of great military skill, daring enterprise, and deep ambition. He speedily 
formed relations Avith those in Hungary and Bohemia, and the Avhole of the latter 
country Avas soon in the poAver of the insurgents. Ferdinand had not yet been 
raised to the imperial dignity, and the protestants hastened to use every means to 

* "History of the Thirty Years' War " and " "Wallenstein." 



198 HISTOKY OF HUNGARY. 

depose him from the throne of Bohemia. A general diet of delegates from the 
various states of the kingdom was held at Prague, in July, 1619, in which a list 
of grievances was drawn up, charging him with having broken his coronation 
oath by interfering in. the government during the life of Mathias, Avith having 
commenced war without the consent of the diet, and with having devastated the 
country with foreign troops, and having sought by transferring the eventual suc- 
cession to the Spanish princes to reduce them under a hateful and despotic yoke, 
and ended by offering the imperial crown to the elector palatine Frederick, who 
accepted it with fear and trembling. He wa-s crowned at Prague, and acknow- 
ledged by all the protestant states of Europe. 

No sooner was this done than Gabriel Bethlem entered Hungary, in answer to 
the call of the protestants of that country, at the head of a large army — took 
Cassau, Tisrnan, Newhasel, dispersed the imperial forces imder Homonai, sent 
18,000 men to enforce count Thurn, got possession of Presburg by treachery, 
and seized upon the regalia. The fate of the unfortunate Frederick is well known. 
Overwhelmed by the vigorous measures of Ferdinand, his armies were driven from 
one post to another by the imperial forces, under the duke of Bavaria and the 
famous count Tilly, until they made their last stand under the walls of Prague. 
The B.ohemian army in vain sought to throw up defences amongst the ravines of 
the White Mouniain, They were furiously attacked ; the Hungarian cavalry were 
routed in the first onset, and after a battle of an hour's duration, in v/hich the 
Moravian troops, under the prince of Anhalt and the young count Thurn, displayed 
the most indomitable valour, were utterly routed, Avith the loss of 5,000 men, 100 
standards, and all the artillery. 

When the armies were on the point of engaging, Frederick, instead of placing 
himself at their head and setting his life and fortune upon the issue, sat down to 
preside at an entertainment given in honour of the English ambassador. It was 
in vain that messengers from the field came to say that it was absolutely necessary 
that he should encourage the troops by his presence. He steadfastly refused 
to quit the scene of the festivities ; and it was only when a courier came to 
announce to him, that fortune v/as declaring against him, that he consented to 
mount and ride forth. He ascended the ramparts on the side next the White 
Mountain just in time to see his army flying in mad confusion towards the city 
before the victorious legions of the emperor. His officers offered to collect the 
remnant of the troops within the city, and the burghers armed and volunteered to 
defend it to the last extremity, but in vain. Nothing could induce Frederick to 
remain? He fled in the night, and died some time after in indigence and exile. ^ 



\ 

* The battle of Prague excited great attention all over Europe. In the days of ot:^ 
grandmothers no young lady was considered to have completed her education till she coiil(^ 
perform on the harpsichord the well-known piece of music, which imitates the charge of 
the cavalry, the roar of the artillery, the groans of the wounded, and the trumpet of victory^ 
as heard on that famous field. It is only within the memory of the present generation that 
young gentlemen have ceased to ask for it, and yotmg misses to simper and comply. 







PEACE BETWEEN FERDINAND AND GABRIEL BETHLEM, 199 

t 
Gabriel Bethlella for a long time supported the prestige acquired by his earlier 

successes. He was proclaimed king of Hungary, and obtained considerable 

advantages over two generals of ability and reputation whom the emperor had 

opposed to him. A treaty of j)eace was, however, at last concluded, upon the 

conditions that he withdrew his garrisons from the places he had captured 

during the war, surrendered the crown, and abandoned the title of king. 

The emperor, on his side, agreed to assign him the duchies of Oppelen and 

Ratibor in Silesia, and to allow him to retain for life Cassau, Tokay, Mungatz 

Szathmar, and Esseck, with seven counties of Hungary, and to grant the 

protestants complete toleration ; but, as a set-off against this latter concession, ho 

insisted upon the restora,tion of the Jesuits, who had been expelled in the reign of 

Mathias. In consequence of this peace, Ferdinand soon after held a diet at 

Presburg, where he restored the regalia with great pomp, and had the satisfaction 

of witnessing the coronation of his empress Eleanora, whom he had recently 

married. As he was well aware that it was only by maintaining Hungary in a 

state of tranquillity that he could hope to make head against the powerful 

confederacy which the German protestants had formed against him, he not only 

granted a general amnesty and fulfilled his promise of toleration, but approved of 

the choice of a protestant palatine. 

He did not long adhere to his good intentions. His anunus against the 

reformed party, still further inflamed by the v/ar he was now carrying on with 

the king of Denmark, soon began to show itself once more in a serid^ of acts of 

petty hostility, more remarkable as omens of what was to follow than for their 

real mischief. Bethlem comj^lained that the duchies that had been promised him 

in Silesia had not been given him ; that due respect had not been shown to his 

ambassadors ; that Jagerndorf and others of his friends had been persecuted and 

harassed ; and finally, that the. stipulations inserted in the treaty relating to the 

protestant religion had not been carried into effect.* He therefore collected an 

army of 45,000 men, joined his forces with those of Mansfeldt, the general of the 

confederacy, after his victory over the imperialists at Presburg ; and at the same 

time the bashaw of Buda entered Lower Hungary at the head of a large force, 

captured various fortresses in the district of Gran, and laid siege to Novigrad, 

They were opposed by two able generals, the famous Wallenstein and 

Swartzemberg, but v/ithout checking their progress. Wallenstein, however, 

followed Mansfeldt into Hungary, where the tv/o armies remained for some time 

inactive in the presence of one another ; but famine, disease, and the approach of 

winter at last broua;ht the contest to a close. The king of Denmark had been 

defeated, and Gabriel Bethlem began to fear that the whole force of the Austrians 

would now be directed against him, and concluded a truce. The bashaw of Buda 

feared the winter, and followed his examjDle ; and Mansfeldt, finding himself thus 

abandoned, disbanded his soldiers, sold his artillery and military stores to the 

* Histoire des Revolutions do Hongrie, p, 62. 



200 HISTORY OF HUNGARY, 

Turks, and set out for Venice through Bosnia with only twelve officers, but died 
at Zara on his way, and thus rid the house of Austria of one of its most 
formidable enemies. "^^ The treaty of peace was again renewed, the truce wath the 
Turks prolonged. 

Ferdinand II., following the practice of his predecessors, caused his son Ferdi- 
nand III. to be elected and crowned king of Hungary in 1625. Bethlem once 
more seized this opportunity of renewing the hostilities. His disposition w^as rest- 
less, and his ambition boundless ; the feelings of the Viennese court towards 
the Hungarians were known to be anything but kindly ; the protestants w^ere in 
a state of continual insecuritj' and alarm, everything seemed favourable for com- 
mencing another campaign. His courage was greater than his fortune. He at 
first obtained sonie successes over General Schlick, near Presburg, but his star 
soon paled its fires before the more redoubtable genius of Wallenstein, and he 
was compelled once more to sue for peace. He pledged himself to furnish 
no more aid to the Bohemian rebels, and Ferdinand promised on his part an 
adherence more strict than ever to the Pacification of Vienna. Bethlem survived 
this truce only three years, and his death in 1629, relieved the Austrians from a 
load of anxiet)'. 

The Transylvanians elected George Rakotski to fill his place, and during 
ne&rly four years Hungary and Transylvania enjoyed the blessings of peace and 
tranquillity. At last, Ferdinand believing that the Turks, in consequence of the 
recent confirmation and prolongation of the truce, would not attempt to interfere, 
determined to reduce the latter into the form of a province of the Austrian 
dominions.! He justified his enterprise by the plea that Transylvania was 
formerly dependent upon Hungary, and that in accordance with treaties Avhich 
had been several times renew'cd and confirmed, it should of right revert to the 
house of Austria upon the death of Bethlem. But there was reason to fear that 
he had other objects in view than a mere assertion of the rights of the archducal 
crown. If Transylvania were re-united to Hungary, it would form a powerful 
ally for the patriotic party in their struggles against Austrian domination. But if, 
on the other hand, it w^ere annexed to Austria, it w^ould facilitate the execution of 
any designs against the Hungarians which the emperor might entertain. The 
palatine, Nicholas Esterhazi, accordingly received orders from Ferdinand to attack 
Cassau and Transylvafflia, and compel Eakotski to relinquish his claims to the 
principality, and deliver it up to the Austrian general. The war ended as might 
be expected, where the attacking party was only half in earirest. No sooner did 
Rakotski appear on the banks of the Teyss, than the palatine took fiight, and 
justified his apparent pusillanimity, by assuring the emperor that the enterprise 

* Coxe's History of the House of Austria, vol. i, part ii. p. 806. 

t " Ca3sar Esterhazum Palatinum anno seeuli deeimi septimi trigesimo, cum iiistructa manu 
ut Transylvaniam in proviacia forniam redigeret et septem comitatus ad Patiscum. anmem, 
una cum urbe Cassovia reciperet, m[dt."—C/iro»Me of ParcMtius tmder Ferdinand III. 



ATIEMPTS AGAINST TKANSYLVAXIA. 201 

could not end ^vell, and that on the ^vhole it woukl be much better to leave prince 
George in the peaceable possession of his dominions. Ferdinand now saw that 
he must choose other agents than the Hungarians for the execution of his design, 
and determined that the next time, the Germans alone should be the agents of his 
will. But this nation, the ever ready tool of despots, were hateful to the Magyars, 
and doubly hateful to the Transylvanians, and their very appearance on the 
frontiers would have been sufficient to have kindled the flame of revolt from one 
end of the kingdom to the other. This was not the only difficulty that the 
emperor had to contend against. He was at that moment engaged in a contest 
with Gustavus Adolphus, the chivalrous and unfortunate king of Sweden, which 
threatened the security of his throne and the integrity of his empire, and which 
needed all the resources at his command for its maintenance. He was, therefore, 
reluctantly obliged to postpone his designs against Transylvania to a more con- 
venient season, and Rakotski had time to take measures for his defence, and for 
compelling Austria to acknowledge his title by soliciting foreign aid. The sultan 
had the strongest possible interest in supporting him, and, therefore, readily 
consented to despatch a large force towards Newheisel, whose presence extoi;ted 
from Ferdinand a promise to abstain in future from all interference in the internal 
affairs of Transylvania. 

(1632.) Whether it was that Rakotski did not think himself justified in relying 
upon Ferdinand's promises, or that the measure of success, which had as yet 
marked his career, had awakened within him bolder and more ambitious 
hopes, he now seemed resolved to push his pretensions beyond the bounds 
of his principality, and to profit by the favourable disposition which was 
evinced towards him by the Hungarians. Either with the desire of aug- 
menting the number of his partizans, or of lending lustre and sanctity to his 
quarrel, he made religion the pretext of a new outbreak. He accordingly raised a 
large army, and set out on his march towards Hungary. Unable to oppose him 
with its own forces, the court of Vienna was compelled to raise up enemies 
against him by intrigues, Avhich were remarkable for their success. Csaki, the 
general of the troops of Gabriel Bethlem's widow, who still held possession of 
the fortress of Tokay, kept him for a long time engaged ; and Stephen Bethlem, 
who had killed one of his relations, sought to protect himself from his vengeance 
by collecting a horde of Tartars and Turks, and for a long time harassed and 
annoyed him by a series of irregular attacks. In addition to this, the sultan, to 
his great surprise and chagrin, held out some threats of invading his dominions. 
Thus foiled, Rakotski was not only compelled to solicit a reconciliation with 
Ferdinand, but to seek it with a show of cordiality which he Avas far from feeling.'^' 
Tranquillity was thus again restored. * 

In 1635, the peace of Prague gave a death-blow to the protestant confederacy, 
and rendered Ferdinand's influence paramount all over Germany. Wallenstein, 

* Histoire des Revolutions de Hongrie p. 64. 



202 HISTOEY OF HUNGARY. 

the extraordinary man whose talents, courage and ambition made him the dread 
and envy of his contemporaries, and made the Austrian emperor fear the successes 
of his armies almost as m_uch as their defeats, had been removed by assassination ; 
the young king of Hungary had given incontestible proofs of valour and conduct, 
by defeating the Confederates in a bloody battle at Nordlingen, and had been 
elected king of the Romans ; John de Wert, and other Austrian generals, had 
repelled the attacks and humbled the pride of France ; the Thirty Years' War, 
originated by the worst of passions of the human heart, supported by the ruin of 
nations, a lavish expenditure of treasure, and the blood and bereavement of two 
generations, was novv^ all but at an end ; everywhere the star of the house of 
Hapsburg was in the ascendant. But in this uprise of Austria, Hungary saw 
the prospect of her own downfal]L> The weakness of the one v/as the strength 
and opportunity of the other, and Hungarian liberties were never more in danger 
than when the Austrian eagle was fluttering its pinions in victory. 

On the 15th of February, 1637, in the midst of all these successes, Ferdinand 
died, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, of a decline brought on by incessant 
anxiety and continual fatigues of mind and body — -after one of the most 
eventful reigns recorded in history. He was brave in danger, firm in adversity, 
sagacious, persevering, and energetic; but he was a blindly and childishly 
superstitious devotee, an inveterate bigot, and was devoured by an ambition 
which allowed no obstacles founded on humanity, justice, or good faith to stand 
in its way. 

Ferdinand was succeeded by his son Ferdinand III. This prince had^ when 
crowned king of Hungary, entered into the same engagements as all his prede- 
cessors, to govern the Hungarians according to the laws and constitutions of the 
kingdom ; but it soon became apparent that he treated these engagem.ents with 
the utmost contempt, and there was hardly a single article in the code against 
which he did not direct an attack. Nevertheless, as the Hungarian protestants 
had now become obnoxious to him in the extreme, in consequence of their con- 
nexion with the German protestants, the sworn enemies of his house, it was 
against them that he gave most evidence of enmity and repugnance. He took 
everv means in his power to diminish their number, and exjoelled many of their 
ministers. As Rakotski had several times proclaimed himself the protector of 
protestantism and of Hungarian liberty in general, to him they naturally looked 
for aid in this emergency. Before undertaking their defence, however, he deter- 
mined to assure himself against all contingencies by seeking assistance from the 
Turks. The sultan, Ibrahim, gave them every promise of support. He next drew 
up a statement of Hungarian grievances— those of the protesta,nts in particular — ■ 
and laid it before Ferdinand. The Austriail cabinet perceiving, however, that the 
sultan was occupied by the czar of Muscovy, who had taken the fortress of Azov, 
and by the knights of Malta, and still more by his projects against the Venetians? 
and relying upon the truce of seven years, which had been concluded sometime 
previously, paid no attention to the document whatever. This irritated Rakotski, 



RAKOTSKI DECLARES WAR. 203 

who forthwith issued a manifesto, complaining " that the house of Austria, in 
violation of several treaties heretofore entered into, was placing Hungary amongst 
the number of its hereditary provinces ; that contrary to the same treaties, it had 
removed the protestants from places of trust and dignity, deprived them of tljeir 
livings, and expelled their ministers ; that in making a point of establishing 
Austrians in the kingdom, it violated all law, neglected the care of the frontiers, 
and everything that was of profit or importance to the nation." All this enlisted 
the sympathies of the Hungarians on his side ; but a victory gained over Bonchaim, 
the Austrian general, speedily increased his army to 60,000 men. He took Cassau, 
Neusohl, Chemnitz, and several other places, and advanced as far as Eperies, where 
he published a proclamation exhorting the Hungarians to insurrection. Ferdinand 
was at first greatly embarrassed. The flower of his forces were engaged in a 
distant war in Jutland, but he managed to collect together 10,000 men, who kept 
Rakotski's numerous but undisciplined and predatory hordes in check, and at the 
same time renewed the truce with the Turks for twenty years. Rakotski, finding 
he was not likely to meet with the support which the French and the sultan had 
promised him before setting out on his enterprise, was compelled to desist from 
hostilities, and fall back within his own frontiers. In the following year, 1645, 
he formed a league Avith the Swedes, v/ho were pressing Austria so hard that 
Vienna itself was threatened, and entering Hungary at the head of 25,000 men, 
sent his son to Bounn, which Tortenson with 8,000 was besieging, and detached 
6,000 to join a corps under the Swedish general Douglas, which spread such 
alarm to Presburg, that the crown and regalia were removed.* 

Ferdinand was now in desperate straits, but taking advantage of some n 
bickerings between Rakotski and the Swedes, he brought about a negotiation 
with the latter, which ended^ in a treaty of peace, which would have been most * ^ rxjS^ 
advantageous, not only to the Rakotski family in particular, but to the Hungarians ^ k -* f. 
in general, had Ferdinand been as faithful in fulfilling his promises as he was 
ready in making them. The articles are recorded in the acts of the diet for the 
3'ear 1647, and lay down an obligation on Ferdinand's part to observe Andrew's 
decree, forbid the alienation of crown property, determine the choice of deputies ] 
for the diets and the manner of giving their suffrages, banish from the kingdom 
all foreign troops, and forbid the drafting of Hungarians for military service into 
foreign countries ; interdict the bestowal of offices upon foreigners (how often was 
this done in vain!), and make it indispensable on the part of the sovereign to 
make known to the diet all treaties entered into with the Porte or other powers on 
their behalf. Nor Avere the protestants forgotten. The record contains an ample 
list of the churches, schools, &c., which Avere then restored to them, or bestoAved 
upon them newly in the different provinces, toAAms, and villages of the kingdom. 
Rakotski Avas formally recognised as the legitimate prince of Transylvania ; the 
seven counties Avhich had been held by Gabriel Bethlem Avere ceded to him, as 

* Coxe's History of th.e House of Austria, vol. i. part ii. p. 938. 




204 



HISTOllY OF IIUKGAIIY, 



well as the duchies of Oppelen and Ratibor in Silesia, and the title of prince of ^ 
the empire was conferred npon him and his descendants for ever. Y(i^^\j..f.f^HPy^ 

This treaty was confirmed at the diet held in 16i7 ; and at the same time 
Ferdinand caused his son of the same name, and elder brother of Leopold, to be 




ANCIENT BUDA. 



elected and crowned king. During his short reign, the country was tranquil ; but 
in 1654 he died, leaving his rights to Leopold. 



CHAPTER XYII. 

THE EEIGN OF LEOPOLD. 
A.D. 1655 — 1697. 

The reign of Leopold' was a period wliich witnessed events more important to 
Hungary than any which preceded it, or have followed it, save only the 
revolutionary years, 1848 and 1849. No monarch of the house of Austria had 
ever made so determined attacks upon Hungarian liberty, and to none did the 
Hungarians oppose a braver and more strenuous resistance. Nothing was left 
untried on the one side to overthrow the constitution ; nothing was left untried on 
the other to uphold and defend it. Few in England know anything of the result ; 
fewer still the steps which led to it ; and even those whose position or pursuits 
have made them acquainted with the facts, have formed their judgment not so 
much from an impartial weighing of them, as in obedience to the dictates of 
passion or hereditary prejudice. The Hungarians look upon their struggles 
against Leopold as a patriotic defence of privileges legitimized by a thousand years 
of possession ; and the partisans of the house of Austria, on the other hand, 
inveigh against them as the efforts of a restless and tumultuous people to free 
themselves from the control of their lawful rulers. Unhappily, this is not one of 
those questions upon which the present generation, looking at it in the light of 
history, can form an impartial and unbiased opinion. Blood has flowed in our 
own time in the old quarrel of the seventeenth century. Neither party has 
retreated from the struggle in despair, and poured out its sorrows and regrets in 
the bosom of tradition. The vanquished are not subdued ; the conquerors are 
not triumphant. Success has not lent lustre and legitimacy to rebellion ; but the 
sword cannot root out the chagrin of defeat, and the hope of revenge. 

Leopold was elected to the throne of Hungary at Presburg, in 1655, during 
the lifetime of his father, when but fifteen years of age. The usual conditions were 
offered for his acceptance by the diet, before conferring the crown upon him, and 
he accepted and swore to observe them, and embodied them in a special diploma 
which he caused to be inserted in the public records :'^' — 

I. That he would preserve inviolate all and singular, the franchises, immuni- 
ties, privileges, laws, statutes, and customs of the kingdom. 

* Arts, of the vear 1655, 



206 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

II. That in each diet (which he would assemble as often as possible, at the 
farthest at intervals of no greater length than three j'ears), he would redress all 
sound grievances {gravamina). 

III. That he would administer the affairs of Hungary by means of Hungarian 
ministers, and would deliberate upon them with them ; and that for no reason, 
and upon no pretence whatsoever, would he suffer his Hungarian subjects to be 
sent, taken, or carried before foreign tribunals. 

IV. That he would confer the government of the frontiers, and all other offices 
in accordance with Article XI., of the year 1608."'^' 

V. The fifth article, which is rather lengthy, relates to tribunals prescribed by 
law, and the abolition of the long and intricate forms of pleading, by Avhich 
justice v\"as delayed and the suitors injured, and of the decision of controversies by 
extraordinary commissioners assuming arbitrary powers, which, till the accession 
of the house of Hapsburg, v\^ere unknown in Hungary, and were utterly opposed 
to the spirit of her laws. 

YI. That for the better preservation of the tranquillity of the kingdom, religious 
affairs should remain upon the same footing as fixed by the Pacification of 
Vienna, and should not be disturbed either by his serenity or by others. 

VII. That he would observe all the ordinary forms in the election of the 
palatine, and would support and maintain him in the exercise of his authority, 
office, and jurisdiction. 

VIII. That he would provide for the security of the frontiers. 

IX. That the free towns, and those of the mountains, should be secured in the 
enjoyment of their rights, liberties, and privileges. 

X. That he would not remove the Hungarian crown out of the kingdom, upon 
any pretext whatsoever, nor by any address or artifice. 

XL That he would not alienate any part of the kingdom, but on the 
contrary, would regulate the differences existing between Hungary, Poland, 
and Silesia, upon the question of boundaries, and would use every endeavour 
to restore to the former all that she might have lost, or have been unjustly 
deprived of. 

XII. The alliances entered into with Bohemia, Transylvania, and with the 
other provinces, should be maintained in full force, in accordance with the treaty 
of Vienna. 

XIII. That he would faithfully observe all that was contained in Article II. of 
the diet of the year 1608, relative to the means of preserving the public peace, 
and the prohibition against declaring war v^4thout the knov/ledge of the states, or 
introducing foreign troops into the kingdom. 

XIV. That the castles of Pernstein, Kobersdorft^ Gintz, Forchvenstein, Eisen- 



* " The eommaiid of fhe frontiers, as -well iii this as in the above-mentioned kingdoms 
(Croatia, &c.), shall be conferred upon natives of Hungary, or upon those of the provinces 
dependent on her." 



WAPv BETWEEN GEORGE RAKOTSKI IT., AND THE TURKS. 207 

stadt, and Hornstein, should remain under the jurisdiction of the Hungarian 
crown. ■'•■ 

XV. The fifteenth has reference to the redemption of some towns mortgaged to 
the Poles. 

XVI. The soldiers who had obtained any privilges from his majesty the em- 
peror, should enjoy them under the reign of his serenity the king. 

XVII. His serenity promised the states that, during the life of his imperial and 
royal majesty the emperor, the latter should in no way interfere in the govern- 
ment of Hungary. I 

These express stipulations were dictated on the part 'of the Hungarians by a 
distrust which their experience of the bad faith of the Austrian court more than 
justified. The folly of trusting to these precautions, hoAvever, when not backed 
up by more powerful weapons than oaths or arguments, soon became apparent. 
Leopold acting under his father's advice and direction, subscribed t6 the compact 
without hesitation, and without any formal retractation laboured all his life after 
to nullify it. The means he employed for this purpose,^ as will be seen in the 
progress of our narrative, were such as appear in the history of every attempt 
made by despotic princes to deprive a democracy of its liberty ; constant watch- 
fulness to take advantage of anything in the course of events that might favour 
his schemes ; sometimes open and undisguised oppression, at others subtle 
intrigues scarcely less lamentable and odious in their results than oppression 
itself; constant sowing of division among the nobles; corruption by promises of 
places at court, pension and emoluments — menaces, bribes, and threats of every 
description. 

The first two years of the young king's reign passed over without the occurrence 
of any event of importance. In 1657 his father died, and during the whole of 
that year he was occupied in procuring his election to the imperial crown, and 
combating the intrigues set on foot by France and Sweden to deprive him of it, 
Cardinal Mazarin wishing, on behalf of the former, to obtain it for. his youthful 
sovereign Louis XIV., who had but just then ascended the throne, and the 
latter Avilling to sacrifice anything to humble the house of Hapsburg. Leopold 
had no sooner secured it, than he found his attention called to the afi'airs of 
Poland, which had been invaded by Charles Gustavus, king of Sweden, aided by 
George Pi,akotski, the second of that name, prince of Transylvania, who had 
siicceeded his father, with the consent of the states and approbation of the Turks, 
who then exercised a more povv'erful influence in the affairs of the principality 
than they had done for some years previously. Great confusion had for a long 
while prevailed at Constantinople, in consequence of the turbulence of the 
janizzaries, who, like the prsetorian guards at Rome, frequently held in their 

* These castles had been detached from the hereditary provinces and incorporated with 
the kingdom of Hungary by ancient treaties with the house of Austria. 

t Histoire des Revolutions de Hongrie, pp. 70, 71. 



208 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 



hands the destinies of the empire. In 1648 Mahomet IV. ascended the throne, in 
the fifth year of his age ; and the nsnal evils attendant upon a minority were 
aggravated by the contentions of the women of the harem, each of whom aspired 
to the sujueme management of affairs. Tlieir strifes at last led to the outbreak 
of a long and bloody war between the two great military bodies of janizzaries and 
spahis, which for some years filled the empire with violence and bloodshed. The 
authority of the sultan was, however, at length restored, and the disorders quelled 
by the ability of two grand viziers, Achmet and Mahomet Kiupruli. Under their 
rule the aggressive policy of the Porte was resumed, and, as usual, its attacks, 
covert or overt, were directed chiefly against Austria. 




FllANOIS YESSELENYI 



Eakotski's administration, both at home and abroad, had been remarkably 
successful until his alliance with Sweden against Poland, formed in the hope of 
obtaining for himself a reversion of the crown of the latter kingdom. Leopold 
was, however, enabled to counteract his schemes by inducing Denmark to declare 
Avar against Sweden — a measure which caused Charles Gustavus to return precipi- 
tately to his dominions. After his departure Rakotski found himself overwhelmed 
by the attacks of the Poles and Tartars, supported by 10,000 Austrian infantry and 
6,000 cavalry, whom Leopold had sent to their aid, and was compelled to retreat 



DEATH OF RAKOTSKI. 209 

in confusion. He had scarce regained his own dominions when the Turks, Avishine 
to profit by his weakness, sent him a stern reprimand for invading Poland, and 
announced their intention of dethroning him as a refractory vassal. He instantly 
appealed to Leopold for aid, who, in accordance with the 12th article of the compact 
he had entered into at his election, was bound to afford it. He not only refused, 
however, but forbade the Hungarians to meddle in the contest, lest it should 
furnish a pretext to the Ottomans for the invasion of the kingdom. He then sent 
an army of Germans into Hungary under the command of General Souche, with 
orders to seize upon those places in Hungary that were held by. the Eakotski 
family, and garrison them.^' This order was promptly executed, and the unfor- 
tunate Eakotski, abandoned on every side, was attacked by the bashaw of Buda 
with an army of 25,000 men, while he had but 6,000 to oppose to him. He did 
not decline the combat, but was killed and defeated, after fighting with heroic 
bravery, in a battle fought near Clausemburgh, leaving a widow and a son, Francis, 
aged fifteen, who had been appointed his successor, and Avho Avas entrusted to the 
guardianship of John Kemeny, one of his most successful generals. The Turks 
forced the states of Transylvania to elect in his stead tAvo princes in succession, 
Redei and Bartzai, Avhose temporary elevation forms their only claim to notice. 
General Souche managed by force or fraud to obtain possession of Tokay, 
Szathmar, Erschit, and Onod ; but he Avas unable to prevent Great Varadin from 
falling into the hands of the Turks. 

The young prince Francis, shortly after his father's death, embraced the Roman 
Catholic religion, which Avas not then dominant in Transylvania, and thus 
alienated the affections of the great mass of the people. Kemeny, forgetful of his 
trust, took advantage of the circumstance to secure his own election, and having 
deposed and assassinated Bartzai, called upon Leopold to aid him against the 
Turks, in Avhich he Avas Avarmly seconded by the Hungarians, Avho Avere alarmed 
by the capture of Great Varadin. f Leopold was but too glad to comply, but the 
force Avhich he sent to his assistance Avas again a German army, under the 
command of foreign officers, in direct violation of the articles of his capitu- 
lation, and Avhich the Hungarians and Transylvanians resented by refusing 
quarters and supplies. This force was under the command of the famous 

* Coxe says that this army was sent into Hungary at the request of the diet. It is possible 
that this request was made with the view of saving Transylvania, but most improbable 
that the diet desired the seizure and occupation of some of the most important towns in 
the kingdom by German troops, of whose presence, under any pretence whatsoever, they 
had the greatest abhorrence, particularly when we find the second article of their proceedings 
in 1659 (the year foUoAving), expressly forbidding theh introduction into the country ; and 
making it essential that those stationed on the frontiers should be ofiicered by Hungarians. 
It is stated in the Memoirs of MontecucuUi, that though the states of Hungary had asked 
for the army, it was badly received when it entered the kingdom ; and they murmured 
greatly because the German general wanted garrisons to place his troops in. This goes to 
confirm the Hungarian account of the transaction. 

t Coxe's History of the House of Austria, vol. i., part ii. p. 988 ; Histoire des Revolutions 
de Hongrie, p. 74. 



210 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

MontecucuUi, who, in his memoirs, tells a doleful story of tlie refusal of the 
Trans vlvanians to receive any assistance from him, and of their obstinate 
persistence in asserting that they were quite able to manage their OAvn affairs. 
The Turks had expelled Kemeny, and, with the consent of the states, had put 
Michael Apafii in his place. Montecuciilli,*'' after one or two slight successes, 
was compelled to fall back upon Upper Hungary, after leaving 1,000 horse with 
Kemeny, and a garrison in Clausemburgh. Leopold assembled the states at 
Cassau, and demanded of them quarters for the German troops and liberty to 
place a garrison in Cassau, under the pretence that there was some danger of a 
war with the Turks, and that it was necessary to have a force to oppose them on 
the spot. They refused to comply, and in the meantime the troops had passed 
into Lower Hungary and found quarters there. The states immediately called 
upon the emperor to withdraw them, and settle the question either by declaring 
war at once against the Turks, or by taking measures for the prolongation of the 
peace. A diet was therefore summoned at Presburg in 1662, which sat from 
May till September, without coming to any conclusion upon the subjects in 
dispute. It charged Leopold with having violated the constitution, in not having 
supported the war by contributions from the crown domains, and in employing 
foreign officers and soldiers instead of the army of the insurrection, the only force 
which was strictly legal. They also alleged that negotiations had been carried 
on between the courts of Austria and Vienna without their cognizance. After 
weeks of useless recrimination, Leopold proposed, by way of compromise, to 
withdraw 9,000 of his troops to the frontier, to pay the remainder at his expense, 
and subject them to the laws of Hungary and the jurisdiction of the palatine. 
But when this offer came to be taken into consideration, the protestants brought 
forward complaints of renewed persecutions which had been lately set on foot 
against them, and getting in a dispute v/ith the catholics, the diet broke up in 
confusion, without coming to any decision, one way or other. The field was thus 
left free to Leopold to act for the present as he pleased, and he availed himself of 

* Raymond, count of MontecucuUi, was one of the most extraordinary men of modern 
times. He was of noble Italian family, and was born at Modena in 1608. He entered the 
army early, and distinguished himself in the imperial forces during the war against the 
Swedes. He was taken prisoner and kept in confinement during two years, the whole of 
which period was devoted to the study of works bearing on his profession. On his liberation 
he served under John de Werth in the war in Bohemia in 1657. He was raised to the rank 
of a field-marshal, and until 1664 he was constantly engaged with the Tiirks in Hungary and 
Transylvania, and closed the campaign by. a signal victory gained at St. Gothard in the latter 
year. In 1675 he was selected to command the German army against Trance, as the only 
general worthy to be matched against Turenne. Between the two they reduced war to an 
art, and their marches, countermarches, manoeuvres, and encampments, were the delight of 
the military eonnoisseurs of the day. Upon the death of Turenne he was opposed by Conde, 
and closed his military career by the siege of Philisburg. He passed the remainder of his 
life in retirement, occupied in the composition of his memoirs and other literary works. He 
died in October, 1681, aged seventy-two. His books upon the science of war were considered 
unquestionable authority till Napoleon upset his system, and proved that it was possible to 
conquer against all rule. 



ANOTHER TURKISH INVASION. 211 

the opportunity to enter into negotiations with the Turks, which ended in the 
conclusion of a treaty of peace at Temesvar,"^' but left the grievances of the 
Hungarians completely unredressed. The chief command of the Austrian troops 
remained in the hands of Montecuculli and German officers, without any regard 
whatever being paid to the claims of the palatine. 

The truce, however, had hardly been concluded, when the vizier Kiupriuli, 
wishing to take advantage of the defenceless and distracted state of Hungary, 
burst across the frontier at the head of 100,000 men, and meeting with no oppo- 
sition from the forces of Montecuculli, Avhich were small in number, and were 
Aveakened by the hardships of the preceding winter, crossed the Drave at Esseck, 
and the Danube at Buda, cut off a corps stationed at Parkun, captured several 
fortresses of great importance, and detached a predatory corps of Turks and 
Tartars, who extended their ravages as far as Olmutz and threatened Vienna 
itself. Kemeny had in the meantime been defeated and killed in a skirmish with 
the Turks, and Apaffi, whom they had nominated as his successor, now attacked 
and captured Zekelheid and Glausemburgh, and would have subdued Croatia and 
Styria, had he not been baffled by the valour of Nicholas Zrinyi the worthy 
descendant of the hero of Sziget. The news came like a thunderclap upon 
Leopold, who was lying sick of the small-pox at Vienna. Montecuculli was 
barely able to save himself from destruction, by shutting himself up in the strong 
position of the Schut, and it was found almost impossible to raise the army of 
the insurrection in the presence of an enemy who swept across the country like a 
whirlwind. There was no resource left, but an appeal to the states of Chris- 
tendom for aid against the common enemy. The German diet was then sitting 
at Ratisbon, and after some hesitation, agreed to postpone the consideration of all 
other questions for the present, and take measures for aiding the emperor, and 
consented to maintain a body of 6,500 men for a year. The other princes of 
Europe were equally liberal. Pope Alexander VII. forwarded 700,000 Roman 
florins, and allowed the emperor to tax the ecclesiastical property in the Austrian 
dominions. The king of France sent 6,000 men under the command of the 
Count de Coligny, and the Marquis de la Feuillade. The king of Spain, though 
his resources were impoverished, furnished money or magazines to the full extent 
of his means ; the king of Sweden added 2,500 men to the contingent, which as a 
member of the empire, he was already bound to furnish. 

At the opening of the campaign, the army under the command of Count 
Hohenlohe took the field, and a great number of trifling combats took place 
between him and the grand vizier, but withou.t any decisive result. The energies 
of the Christian forces were paralysed by the quarrels between Montecuculli and 
Zrinyi, the ban of Croatia ; the former was as cautious and calculating as the 
latter was fiery and impetuous, and he was exasperated against the Hungarians, 
on account of the poor reception- they had given him the preceding campaign. 

* History of the House of Austria, vol. i. part ii. p. 992. 

q2 



212 HISTOKY OF IirNOATlY. 

Their differences aided the Turks effectually. They failed in an attack on 
Canisia, and Zrinyi had the mortification of witnessing the reduction of a 
fortress whicli he himself had built on the Mura, for the express purpose of 
repelling the incursions of the infidels. Irritated by this ill success and also at 
Montecuculli's delay, he left the army in disgust to lay his complaints before the 
emperor. 

Kiupriuli now directed his march towards the frontiers of Styria, and Monte- 
cuculli drawing together the whole of the Christian forces, amounting to 60,000 in 
all, took his stand behind the Raab in the strong position of St. Gothard, to 
oppose his progress. The emperor's own troops were stationed on the right, 
those of the empire in the centre, and the French and other auxiliaries on the left, 
to dispute the passage of the river. A body of janizzaries crossed without 
hesitation, and the rest of the army followed, but owing to a sudden rain, a part 
was left on the farther shore. The janizzaries Avere attacked early on the foUoAv- 
ing morning and thrown into confusion, but being supported by fresh rein- 
forcements which crossed the river, the Christian forces were repulsed and broken, 
and some fugitives flying to Gatz, announced that the day was lost. But the 
skill of Montecuculli restored the fortune of the combat. His cavalry kept the 
spahis in check, and the janizzaries were routed by the steady discipline of the 
Germans and the indomitable valour of the French : 8,000 Avere slain, and many 
more Avere lost in attempting to climb the rugged banks of the Raab. Among 
the killed on the side of the Turks were the bashaAV of Buda, and a son of the 
khan of Crim Tartary ; but they did not on this occasion lose merely in their 
irregular troops accustomed to flight ; but in the disciplined corps of the janiz- 
zaries, Albanians, and spahis, Avho, in the faguratiA-e language of the east, Avere 
styled the SAVord and shield of the empire.* 

A success so great, and in some measure unlooked for, led the Hungarians to 
expect that it Avould be attended by the total expulsion of the Ottomans from the 
kingdom. But it Avas no easy matter to keep together the heterogeneous materials 
of AA^hich the Christian army Avas composed, and the jealousy evinced by the 
Hungarians themselves at the presence of foreign troops Avithin their territory 
Avarned Leopold of the necessity of bringing the Avar to a speedy close. To the 
astonishment of CA-erybody, hoAvever, he concluded a truce for tAventy-one years 
with the grand vizier. The battle Avas fought on the 1st of August, 1666, 
and the treaty Avas signed on the 17th of September, The Turks Avere to 
retain Great Varadin and Neuheisel, and Apafh was recognised by the emperor 
as the legitimate prince of Transylvania, Leopold held all the toAvns, fortresses, 
and counties in Hungary Avhich he had AA-rested from Rakotski ; and the garrisons 
Avhich had been received in various places during the Avar Avere maintained 
there ; and in addition to all this, to render himself still more secure, he built 
a neAV fortress, Leopoldstadt, on the Waag, The Hungarians, Avho kneAv 

* Histoire dcs Ilevohitions de Ilongrie, p. 76. 



COXCLUSION OF PEACE. 



iii4 



nothing of the treaty and took no part in framing it, were irritated by it in the 
highest degree ; and denounced it as a flagrant violation of Leopold's capitula- 
tion. They even arrested the secretary of the imperial resident in the Turkish 
camp as he was conveying the treaty to Vienna, and were with difficulty induced 
to liberate him and restore his papers. After great delay the states were at 
length persuaded to ratify the conditions of the truce, upon the emperor's pro- 
mising to replace the German troops by Hungarian levies, and to grant no state 
office or trust without their knowledge and consent. He, at the same time, 
restored the crown of St. Stephen to Presburg, which, during the war, had been 
carried away to Vienna. 

The Hungarians now found themselves in a more lamentable position than 
ever. The Turkish bashaw commanding the garrison in Neuheisel began to levy 
tribute over the whole of Hungary, to the very frontiers of Moravia ; and the 
people, unable to resist, were compelled to pay it. On appealing to the court of 
Vienna, orders were sent down to them to refuse it in every case ; but no mention 
was made of protection or support, though the German troops still occupied the 
garrisons. The imperialists, secure in their fortified posts, abandoned the open 
country to the ravages of the Ottomans, so that it was kept in a state of continual 
warfare. During this so-called peace, no less than 60,000 men perished upon the 
frontiers of Vezprim and Papa alone.* Applications were at last made to Leopold 
for permission to send a minister to the Porte to complain of these outrages, and 
of the infraction of the treaty ; but this was refused. Such was the posture of 
affairs when the diet assembled at Presburg and Neusohl, in 1668, in a state of the 
highest irritation. The emperor sent down commissioners to demand subsidies 
for the support of the foreign troops still remaining in the country, and the 
erection of new fortresses. The deputies steadfastly refused compliance, and 
complained in bitter terms of the scenes of violence which were daily witnessed 
throughout the kingdom, worse by far in their results than open and avowed 
hostilities, of the levying of the tribute, and carrying off" the inhabitants into 
captivity practised by the Turks. The palatinate had lately become vacant by 
the death of the illustrious Wesselenyi, who had been for a long while the pro- 
phet and guide of the patriotic party, and who was on the point of forming a party 
to rise in insurrection against the emperor, in accordance with an express article 
in the constitution which Leopold himself had sworn to maintain. 

The states now called upon Leopold to fill it up, as they had now more than 
ever need of a mediator between him and them. As this office was always an 
obnoxious one to the Austrian court, and as the palatine was always looked upon 
with distrust and suspicion, Leopold refused to comply, though this Avas one of the 
duties which he had expressly engaged to perform. This inflamed the discon- 
tents of the diet, and they were wrought up to the highest pitch of agitation, by 
hearing of the death of Nicholas Zrinyi, while out boar-hunting, some said by 

* Hlstuire des RevoUilions de Ilongrie, p. 78. 



214 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

accident, but the majority attributed it to the machinations of the Austrians. 
Alarms now spread on every side. Rumour and excitement magnified every 
incident, however trifling, into importance. It was confidently stated and 
believed, that it was the intention of the government to remove, either by open or 
covert violence, every man who was bold and honest enough to offer any opposition 
to its tyranny and exactions. Peter Zrinyi, the brother of Nicholas, placed him- 
self at the head of the malcontents, and by his energy and activity speedily 
placed all things in train, ready for action. He attached to his party, amongst 
others, count Frangipani, a young magnate of great talents and influence ; 
Tattenbach, governor of Styria, and Nadasdi, president of the high court of 
justice, and he gained over the young count Rakotski, by bestowing upon him his 
beautiful and accomplished daughter, Helena, in marriage. They now began to 
assemble troops, and called upon the emperor once more to summon a diet, 
and fill up the office of palatine ; but he not only again refused, but actually 
connived at the excesses of his troops, and encouraged the catholics in their 
persecution of the protestants. The chiefs of the national confederacy there- 
upon entered into relations with Apaffi, the prince of Transylvania, sought aid 
from the Porte, and in accordance with article III. of the year 1608, convoked a 
diet at Cassau for the performance of the duty which the sovereign had declined 
to fulfil. Previous to this, the Viennese court had been so irritated by the 
refusal of the diet of Presburg to comply with the requirements of the royal 
commissioners, that they pretended to regard it as an act of treason, and actually 
summoned the principal members to Vienna, there to undergo the confiscation of 
their goods, and receive the punishment due to their disobedience and rebellion. 
There was clearly no resource left but an appeal to arms, a step which was in 
such cases expressly authorized by a clause in the Bulla Aurea. They, therefore, 
consolidated their union. Rakotski assembled 2,000 of his retainers, and was 

joined by a large force of insurgents from various parts of the kingdom, and made 
an attack upon Tokay, but was repulsed by the garrison, and was prevented from 
occupying Mungacs, which contained his father's treasure, by the prudence or 
timidity of his mother, who ordered the artillery of the place to be turned against 
his troops. 

By means of intercepted letters and spies at the Ottoman court, Leopold had 
obtained timely warning of what was in contemplation long before the actual out- 
break of the insurrection, and took prompt measures for its suppression. Troops 
were sent against Rakotski in Upper Hungary, and against the others in Croatia 
and Styria. Tattenbach, Zrinyi, Frangipani, and Nadasdi, were secured by treachery, 
and in direst violation of law were dragged away to Vienna out of the jurisdiction 
of the national tribunals, and there imprisoned, and shortly afterwards executed. 

. The sons of Zrinyi were sentenced to perpetual imprisonment, and, in the hope of 
rooting out the memory of the leaders and destroying the infiuence of their families 

for ever, their property was confiscated, their children were ordered to change their 

names, those of Nadasdi into that of Creutzberg, and those of Zrinyi to Gunde. 



OUTBREAK AND FAILURE OF THE INSURRECTION. 215 

Rakotski was saved by the influence of his mother, and the more potent influence 
of his own wealth, which was lavishly poured into the Austrian coffers, and procured 
him liberty to lay down his arms and retire in peace. He did not, long survive his 

overthrow. 

An amnesty was proclaimed on the 6th of June, 1671, excepting by name, how- 
ever, a crowd of leaders, who had escaped into exile. The offices of palatine, 
supreme judge, and ban of Croatia, were formally abolished; the monarchy was 
declared hereditary in the house of Hapsburg ; thirty thousand additional troops 
were quartered in the kingdom ; the people were loaded with extraordinary taxes, 
besides being burdened with the maintenance of foreign soldiery. In another 
proclamation, published shortly after, the constitution was declared changed ; the 
government was vested in a council nominated by the emperor, and John Gaspar 
Amprugen, a Hungarian, indeed, but a bigoted catholic, blindly devoted to 
■Austria, and grand master of the order of Teutonic Knights, was appointed presi- 
dent and governor-general of the kingdom. Every effort was now made to extir- 
pate the protestant religion. Courts were established for the punishment of 
heresy ; the protestant churches were shut up, a general decree of proscription 
issued againat the ministers, and such as were taken were cruelly tortured or sent 
to the galleys. Two hundred and fifty of these unfortunate men were sentenced 
to be stoned or burnt, but their sentence was commuted into hard labour and per- 
petual imprisonment. Their fortitude under these dreadful sufferings, their piety, 
and magnanimity filled all who saw them with pity, and the authorities, in order 
to remove them from the public gaze, sold them at fifty crowns each to work in 
the Neapolitan galleys. They were at length liberated by the intervention of the 
Dutch admiral, De Ruyter. The vengeance of the court was even extended to 
women. Secszi Maria, the widow of the late palatine Wesselenyi, in whom the 
hopes of the patriots had been centred, was not shielded by her bereavement. An 
army under the duke of Lorraine besieged her in her castle of Murany, and at 
last forced her to capitulate, upon the express condition that she should retain the 
keys and be left in peaceable possession of the place. No sooner had the be- 
siegers entered than she was arrested, placed in close confinement, and soon after 
sent to Vienna, where she died in a dungeon. 

(1672.) The oppression and cruelties of the Austrians at last became 
intolerable. Protestants and catholics forgot their differences, and united against 
an enemy to whom everything Hungarian seemed hateful. " Better die on the 
battle-field," was the cry on every side, " than linger in misery, and be slaughtered 
or starved in our own houses !" Disputes broke out very soon between Leopold 
and the prince of Transylvania, and a rising having taken place in Hungary, the 
insurgents were assisted by the former, as well as by the Turks and French, with 
supplies of arms and ammunition, and money. In several encounters with the 
imperial troops, they were partially successful, and took some towns and 
fortresses — amongst others, Eperies. Leopold then sent into Hungary a 
reinforcement of 10,000 men, under the command of General Kops, aided by 



216 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 



Esterliazy, a Hungarian noble. The malcontents were led on by Petroczi, 
Suchai, Szepezi, and many other magnates of high standing and influence, who 
had taken refuge in Transylvania ; but their undisciplined forces were easily 
routed by the trained soldiers of Austria. This abortive attempt increased the 
miseries of those of the Hungarians who still remained in their unhappy country. 
The imperial troops wreaked their vengeance, which they were unable to pour out 
upon their armed opponents, upon the unfortunate peasants and gentlemen, who 
vainly sought safety in peaceful submission. Thousands who could no longer 
endure the brutal insolence of the soldiery, the desolation of their households, and 
the insults offered to their wives and daughters, fled to the mountains, or crossed 







FORTRESS OF MURANY. 



the Transylvanlan frontier, and swelled the ranks of the insurgents. The situation 
of Leopold was now becoming perplexing in the extreme. He was engaged in 
an arduous contest with Louis XIV. of France, which left him neither time nor 
resources for carrying on the war in Hungary. He vainly offered terms to the 
insurgents, upon condition that they laid down their arms and returned home ; 
but they had too much and bitter experience of his perfidy to trust themselves 
defenceless in. his hands. By the aid of the new levies that were daily joining 
them, they were enabled to obtain several considerable advantages over the 
imperial forces. They were at last placed in a position of decided superiority by 
the arrival of an army of 6,000 Poles and 8,000 Magyars from Poland, under 



EMERIK TEIvELI. 



217 



the command of a French general, the Count de Boham, and thus reinforced, 
they defeated the Austrians under General Schmidt, in two pitched battles. 
These successes were, however, after all, but temporary, and the malcontents 
would have been obliged once more to give ground (1677), had they not found in 
the youthful Emerik Tekeli a leader worthy of the cause and equal to the 
crisis. 

His father had been associated in the former conspiracy with the unfortunate 




mm 



EMERIK TEKELI. 



Frangipani, Nadasdi, and Tattenbach, but, more fortunate than they, had died 
sword in hand, fighting in defence of his castle, leaving an avenger in the person 
of his son, who, at the early age of sixteen, found himself a fugitive in Poland, 
bereft of his property, which Leopold had confiscated, and left without friend, 
support, or counsellor. It was in vain that he demanded from the court of 
Vienna the restoration of his property : his remonstrances and entreaties were 
treated with contempt or indifference, or were met with threats and reproaches. 
Hatred to Austria now became the ruling passion of his life, and by its 
intensity seemed to develop all the powers of his mind into precocious activity. 



218 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

His father's wrongs had left an indelible impression on his mind, but sorrow 
for his loss was now absorbed in the desire to avenge it in vindicating 
the liberty of his country. When he repaired to the court of Apaffi, the prince 
of Transylvania, though scarce eighteen, he had all the ardour and enthusiasm 
natural to his years, combined with the courage, firm^ness, foresight, and 
self-reliance which are usually found in conjunction with maturity alone, and 
which nothing but adversity can confer upon youth. He distinguished himself 
amongst the crowd of refugees who now filled Transylvania, by his wit, 
cheerful disposition, and undaunted valour. He soon gained the favour of 
the prince Apaffi ; and after serving as a volunteer in the forces which the latter 
sent to the aid of the Hungarian insurgents, he found himself, before he had 
reached the age of twenty, placed in the chief command, by the unanimous 
consent of all, except Wesselenyi, the brother of the late palatine, who was 
jealous of his talents and affected to despise him for his youth. Upon assuming 
the leadership, he placed on the broad folds of his banner, worked in letters of 
gold, the proud and appropriate motto — ■" Pro aris et focis,^' and crossed the 
frontier at the head of 20,000 men, mostly volunteers, to Avhom union and 
enthusiasm supplied the place of discipline. 

Shortly after beginning his march he held a council of war, to take into con- 
sideration the plan of the campaign, and it Avas there resolved that after waiting 
for some reinforcements of the frontier guard, which were on their way to join 
them, they should cross the Teyss, and then act as circumstances might dictate. 
He then took the road into Upper Hungary, being joined by great numbers of 
volunteers on his way, and approached Mungacs for a purpose altogether foreign 
to the object of his expedition. Helena, the beautiful daughter of the unfortunate 
Count Zrinyi, had, as we have already said, been married to the young prince 
Rakotski, with the view of attaching him more firmly to the revolutionary party. 
She was now a widow, and in the bloom of her youth, and Tekeli had seen 
and loved her. A union Avith her became one of the secondary aims of an 
ambition which success and flattery was rendering stronger and more daring ; and 
amidst all the care and anxiety with which his position surrounded him, she seldom 
ceased to occupy his thoughts. But the great obstacle in his way was Rakotski's 
mother, who, being a zealous Roman Catholic, Avas strongly opposed to the 
marriage of her daughter-in-laAV Avith a Lutheran, and Avas in command of the 
fortress of Mungacs, Avhich contained the treasures of the family. Tekeli brought 
the army into the neighbourhood, in the hope of being able in some Avay to 
arrange an intervieAv Avith the young princess ; but her mother-in-laAV no sooner 
heard of his approach, than she sent all the force at her command to attack him : 
but, after an obstinate conflict, he came off victorious, Avith great slaughter, and 
amongst the prisoners he made upon that occasion Avas the brother of his 
inamorata.* His success Avas, hoAvever, so dearly bought, that he Avas compelled 

* Histoire des Troubles de Hongrie, depuis 1656 jusqu'en 1687, vol ill., pp. 310-11. 



WAR BETWEEN TEKELT AND LEOPOLD. 219 

to silence, for the present, the whisperings of the tender passion, and prosecute 
the campaign in another quarter. He soon extended his conquests towards the 
Danube, and pushed his predatory parties into Styria, Moravia, and even Austria 
herself, which were greatly aided by a certain Father Josa, an ecclesiastic, who 
had abandoned, the altar for the field, and gathered round him a great number 
of country gentlemen whom the troubles of the times had deprived of all means 
of livelihood but pillage. With the view of making a diversion in Transylvania, 
an Austrian army, under the command of General Lesley, who divided his army 
.into three battalions, and proudly boasted that the rebels would melt before him 
like snow before the sun. His presumption received a signal check. Each of 
the three corps was utterly routed, and the strength of the insurgents now became 
so formidable, that Leopold Avas fain to open negotiations with them, Avith the 
view of gaining time to recruit his diminished armies. He, therefore, offered 
Tekeli to restore his estates, to consent to his marriage with the princess Helena 
to grant toleration to the protestants, and an amnesty for all engaged in the insur- 
rection. While these proposals were . under considera,tipn, Generals Wurm, 
Schmidt, and Dunewald, were rapidly collecting forces to strengthen the garrisons 
of the various important posts Avhich were threatened by the Hungarians. 
Tekeli, finding himself deceived, abruptly broke off the negotiation, recommenced 
hostilities, and seized upon the towns and rich mines in the mountains. While 
here, they heard of the approach of the three Austrian generals at the head of 
18,000 men, with the design of forcing the passage of the river of Altsohl, where 
it ran through a gorge among the hills. After a sharp conflict the imperialists 
proved successful, but Tekeli retired in good order. " On receiving some rein- 
forcements he again returned, and offered battle ; but the Austrians once more 
renewed their proposals for a truce upon condition that they should retain the 
mountain towns, and the Hungarians those upon the Turkish frontier. Tekeli 
accepted them, and consented to a cessation of hostilities for three months. 

This truce was extremely advantageous for the emperor, as it brought Tekeli 
into discredit with his OAvn followers, who began to mourn loudly that he was 
sacrificing the public good to his private interests, and had concluded a disho- 
nourable peace with the vieAV of promoting his marriage with the princess Rakotski, 
and deserted in crowds to join the forces of Wesselenyi, his rival and detractor. 
This was exactly what the Austrians desired, and after a month of delay they 
declined to continue the truce any longer, unless they were put into possession of 
the Turkish frontier. Tekeli now saw that he was their dupe, and that, far from 
entertaining any real desire for peace, they wished merely to gain time and to sow 
division amongst their enemies. The war Avas once more reneAved ; and Tekeli, 
smarting Avith chagrin, displayed such energy and courage in carrying it on, that- 
he completely regained, the confidence of his adherents. . But the plague Avas at 
this time raging both in Austria and Hungary, both armies were reduced and dis- 
heartened by its ravages, and the operations of the Hungarians Avere noAV, for the 
most part, confined to making mere forays into the enemy's territory. To add to 



220 IllSTOllY OF IIUKGARY. 

their difficulties the intrigues of Wesselenyi divided their forces into two hostile 
factions, who wasted upon each other the strength and courage which should have 
been reserved for the enemy. Wesselenyi was at last overpowered, arrested, and 
sent prisoner to Clausemburg, and Tekeli once more, allured by the promise of the 
princess Helena, concluded a truce. 

(1680.) This truce had no better object in view than either of the preceding. 
Leopold hoped to gain time to recruit his army and finances, and to strengthen 
and establish his absolute rule over Hungary. Tekeli began to open up negotia- 
tions with the Turks, and to keep up the spirits of his followers, assured them of 
the influence he possessed in Constantinople ; and resuming hostilities, gained a 
considerable advantage over the imperial forces at Leutchau, in Upper Hungary, 
which induced Leopold at last to make propositions which seemed to strike at the 
root of the discontents. Delegates from both sides assembled at Presburg, and 
those of the Hungarians laid down the following demands as the basis of all 
negotiation. 1. The election of a palatine, with the full power and authority 
attached to his office by the laws. . 2. The consequent dismissal of the grand 
master of the order of Teutonic Knights from the office of viceroy of the 
kingdom, with which the emperor had invested him, after he had declared himself 
absolute sovereign of Hungary. 3. The expulsion of all foreign troops from the 
kingdom, unless they were placed in subjection to the laws, and to the authority 
of the palatine. 4, The convocation- of a general diet, in which the states should 
have complete liberty of speech. 5. The reinstatement of the protestants in all 
the rights and privileges of which they had been unjustly deprived, and the 
possession of which had been repeatedly guaranteed to them by the princes of the 
house of Austria in formal diplomas. For himself , Tekeli stipulated for nothing 
but the restoration of his property. 

The Viennese cabinet was unwilling to accede to propositions like these, which 
would have undone the whole work of the previous five years, and left the 
emperor more powerless in Hungary than ever. It temporised, promised, 
retracted, intrigued, warned the catholics that if a diet were assembled, the whole 
of the church property would be thrown into the hands of the protestants, but 
steadily avoided coming to any conclusion. Tekeli was fast becoming disgusted, 
and renewed his negotiations with Turkey. The sultan promised to support him 
with all the power of the empire, in case he chose to break with Leopold. 
Rumours of an armament on a vast scale in Constantinople reached Vienna. A 
war seemed imminent. The emperor became alarmed, and at last agreed to 
summon a diet at Oedenburgh, in February, 1681. But the remedy came too 
late, too late for the pacification of the kingdom, too late for the consolidation of 
Leopold's power as a constitutional king, and above all, too late for the fair 
fame of Emerik Tekeli. Had this proposal been made half a year sooner, his 
name would have come down to us the most brilliant, most revered, and most 
unsullied of all those in the long list of patriot heroes. He was already too far 
gone in his negotiations Avith the Turks to recede without difficulty and danger. 



CONVOCATTON OF A PIET. 221 

Perhaps he feared to trust to Leopold's promises, and if he did, he had but too 
much reason ; perhaps he feared the anger of the sultan, who would never have 
laid calmly aside his preparations for war without seeing the face of an enemy ; 
and if he did, he had reason too. But, however it be, it is certain that he refused 
to be a party to the assembling of the diet, or to have any part in the negotiations, 
and covertly continued to solicit the intervention of the Ottomans. The con- 
sequences proved disastrous for Hungary ; and none had more reason to regret 
them than Tekeli. Obloquy has ever since been heaped upon him by the 
partizans of Austria, as the ally of the deadliest enemy of the Christian name, and 
as the betrayer of Europe to the Turks, and the attacks of political malice have 
been but too warmly supported by the violence of religious bigotry. With our 
knowledge of the circumstances in which he was placed, we dare not judge him 
harshly. He was overwhelmed by one of those misfortunes which for six hundred 
years have clung to Hungary like a curse — the misfortune of being weak and divided 
in the midst of united and powerful neighbours, and of often finding, in times 
of difficulty, no better refuge from the rage of one, than the scarcely less 
dangerous friendship of another. The only ally powerful enough to protect 
Hungary against the power of Austria was Turkey, and the fact that Turkey 
was Mahometan has blasted Tekeli's reputation. It was his misfortune, no 
doubt, that such was the case, but Avas certainly not his fault that at Con- 
stantinople he found all the cardinal virtues of Christianity at least as well practised 
and exemplified as at Vienna. 

When the diet assembled, Leopold conceded nearly every point in dispute. 
Paul Esterhazy was selected palatine, the new form of government was abolished, 
a general amnesty was published, the illegal imposts were removed, the frontier 
militia was re-established, liberty of conscience was granted to the protestants, 
the confiscated property was restored, the heirs and descendants of the nobles who 
had suffered for the former conspiracy were permitted to reassume their family 
names. The disputed points relative to the maintenance of the foreign troops, and 
the subjection of the nobles to their own tribunals, were to be settled in accord- 
ance with Leopold's oath at his coronation, and the constitutions of the kingdom. 
In short, every grievance which had arisen during recent troubles was provided 
for and redressed. 

With all this, Tekeli, and a large party with him, distrusting Leopold's pro- 
mises, or relying upon Turkish aid, refused to have anything to do, but, at the 
request of the diet, he consented to prolong the armistice which had been entered 
upon, for six months. 

Leopold took advantage of this interval to send an embassy to Constantinople 
to solicit a renewal of the truce of 1664, which was now on the point of expiring. 
But he was foiled by Louis XIV., who everywhere proved his most powerful 
enemy. By his influence the emperor's requests were refused by the divan, 
unless upon condition that he paid an annual tribute, demolished the fortifications 
of Gratz and Leopoldstadt, yielded Neutra, Eschkof, the Isle of Schutz, and the 




222 HISTORY OF HUNGAHY. 

fortresses of Murany to Tekeli, and restored to the Hungarian nation all its ancient 
rights and privileges. To such proposals as these, there was of course no reply 
but the one — Avar. 

As soon as Tekeli heard of the result of the negotiations, he married the prin- 
ces Helena, who had been freed from restraint by the death of her mother-in-law, 
and thus obtained possession of the fortress of Mungacs, and then made every 
preparation for the approaching campaign. His alliance with the Turks rendered 
his name odious throughout Europe, and alienated him from a great body of his 
own countrymen. He was accused of being animated by insatiable ambition, 
which made him ready to sacrifice everything to what he •believed to be his own 
interests, and he was held responsible for all the evils resulting from the tremen- 
dous struggle now impending. He declared, in his defence, that the promises of 
Leopold had been so often and so shamefully violated, that he dared not then 
trust to them ; that in the course he was taking he saw the only road to safety, 
and that without an alliance Avith Turkey, neither Hungary nor any other power 
in Europe could offer a successful resistance to the aggressions of Austria. As 
soon as the truce expired, he once more took the field, and being joined by the 
forces of Apaffi, the prince of Transylvania, entered Buda in triumph, Avhere he 
was inaugurated prince of Upper Hungary by the bashaw (1682), who gave him 
the investiture • in the oriental manner, Avith sabre, vest and standard. He was 
soon after joined by numbers of protestants, Avho Avere irritated by the attempts of 
the emperor to evade the fulfilment of his promises regarding the restoration of 
their rights ; ah.d being assisted by the bashaAvs of Buda and Varadin, he sent a 
predatory corps into Moravia, and attacked and captured Zathmar, took the castle 
of Oassau by escalade, and the town also. Eperies fell in like manner, and all 
the towns occupied by German garrisons. The diet, hovv'ever, and the great body 
of the nation, took part Avith the emperor. The German troops, under the pressing 
necessity of the case, Avere su.fFered to remain in the kingdom, upon condition that 
they Avere kept in strict discipline and Avere Avithdrawn at the close of the Avar.. 
Such of the national forces as still survived the carnage and troubles since 1664 
were embodied for the defence of the kingdom, the hussars and heyducs Avere 
under the command of Esterhazy, the palatine, in Upper Hungary. Bathyanyi, 
Palfi, Kohari, and other Hungarian nobles, raised their vassals and fought stoutly 
against the Turks in LoAver Hungary and on the frontier of Croatia, though the 
German garrisons in most instances surrendered their posts after a slight re- 
sistance. 

During the year 1682, hoAvever, no open rupture betAveen the Turks and the 
emperor took place. The former merely served as auxiliaries in the army of 
Tekeli, and by their skill and experience gave him a manifest superiority over the 
Austrian generals, whose operations were, however, completely paralyzed by the 
AVeakness and vacillation of the Viennese cabinet. Leopold made several attempts 
to treat with Tekeli, in the hope of bringing doAvn on him the suspicion and 
distrust of the Turks, but Avithout success. He then began to occupy himself 



PREPARATIONS FOR THE DEFENCE OF THE EMPIRE. 223 

more usefully in calling the attention of the other nations of Europe to the 
danger which threatened Christendom, and imploring their aid against the 
common enemy. He was strenuously supported by the pope, for more reasons 
than one. The papal nuncio travelled into Poland, and prayed for succour in 
an agony of entreaty ; all the weapons of the spiritual armoury at the Vatican 
were flourished before the faces of the catholic potentates, to persuade them to 
unite against the infidels. The Austrian ambassadors at the various German 
courts employed all the arts of policy and intrigue to rouse the religious ardour 
of the princes. There were glory r.nd plunder for the ambitious and warlike' 
everlasting salvation for the devout and superstitious, and threats and vengeance 
for the laggard or indifi"erent. All this was not without its efiect. The electors 
of Bavaria and Saxony promised the greater part of their forces, and several 
other members of the empire followed their example. Leopold began to recover 
from his fears and take heart again. Negotiations with Tekeli were no longer 
spoken of, and his name was now never mentioned but as that of an insolent rebel, 
who would soon lie at the mercy of the emperor. 

In the meanwhile the most stupendous preparations were being made in Turkey. 
All Asia seemed to be preparing to overrun Europe. Towards the close of 1682, 
the sultan repaired in person to Adrianople, and raised the horse-tail standard, and 
300,000 of the true believers were soon gathered around it, panting to be led 
against the christians. A treaty was entered into with Tekeli, by which it Avas 
stipulated that he should be elected prince of Hungary ; that the sultan should 
restore to the Hungarians all their ancient liberties, defend them with all his 
power, make no treaty to their detriment, put them in possession of all their towns 
and fortresses, establish free trade between the two countries, receive their ministers 
as those of crowned heads, and never exact a greater tribute than 40,000 gold 
ducats annually. In the commencement of the year 1683 Tekeli convoked a diet 
at Cassau, at which the envoys of the emperor were present, and some futile 
attempts were once more made to bring about a reconciliation, and the assembly 
broke up without coming to any conclusion. The Ottoman army, under the 
command of the grand vizier, Kara Mustapha, shortly after commenced its march 
towards Belgrade, and Tekeli issued a proclamation calling upon the Hungarians 
to repair to his standard, promising them the protection of the sidtan and security 
for their lives and property, and threatening with fire and sword all who neglected 
or refused to obey. 

He joined his forces with those of the Turks at Esseck, and advanced rapidly 
towards Austria. The German troops terrified by his proclamation and unprepared 
for a defence against so formidable an enemy, hastily abandoned their posts at 
his approach. Papa, Vesprim, and various other towns, surrendered without 
resistance. To all who submitted to his authority Tekeli gave letters of protection, 
to protect them from the violence of the invading army; and many of the nobles, 
whom the long and apparently interminable broils had rendered indifferent to the 
claims of party or the fate of their country, availed themselves of those safeguards 



224 



HTSTOllY OF irUNGAKY. 



to remain quietly upon their estates. Others joined the insurgent chief and stood 
by him to the last ; but a great number, and particularly the Roman catholic 
prelates, followed the Germans in their retreat. The more timid, who wished to 
abide the issue in safety without committing themselves to the cause of either 
party, took refuge in castles of their friends in remote districts, or left the country 
altogether.'^' 

Leopold had in the meantime stipulated for succours from John Sobieski, king 
of Poland, whose very name already made the Turks tremble, and had employed 
the palatine Esterhazy to raise in Hungary the army of insurrection; but such was 




CHARLES OF LORRAINE. 



the apathy of the imperial court, the tardiness of the German succours, and the 
desertion of the soldiers, that when the emperor reviewed the troops in person at 
Presburg, on the 7th of May, he had but 40,000 in all, the command of which he 
committed to Charles, Duke of Lorraine. On the 11th, Leopold returned to Vienna, 
and Lorraine opened the campaign by laying siege to Neuheisel, but was compelled 
to abandon it by the approach of the whole Turkish army, and fearing they might 
cut off his retreat, retired forthwith to Vienna, laying waste the country on the 
line of his march, having thrown some of his cavalry into Raab and Comorn. 



* Histoire des Kcvolutions de Hongrie. 



THE SIEGE OF VIENNA. 



225 




22Q HISTORY OF HimGARY. 

He found the city in a terrible state of confusion and dismay. On the 7th of 

July the emperor, empress, archdvdces and archduchesses of the imperial family, 

with many of the nobles, had fled precipitately to Lintz, and the nev/s of their 

departure filled the citizens with consternation. Thousands packed up their goods 

in carts, carriages, and waggons, and poured forth into the open country, going 

they knew not whither ; many broke down, and others, losing their way, wandered 

about the roads till captured by the advanced guard of the Turks. Wailing and 

lamentation filled the streets and houses. The doors of most of the mansions of 

the dastardly courtiers and nobility lay wide open, the furniture scattered 

about in confusion, their jewels even having, in many instances, been abandoned 

in their terror. On the 12th and 18th the suburbs were burned, and on the 

15th the huge army of the vizier encamped about the city, and commenced the 

siege. The churches were filled with weeping suppliants for the mercy and 

protection of heaven ; in the streets the citizens were pouring out maledictions 

upon the emperor and the Jesuits. The fortifications Avere dilapidated, and the 

garrison small and inefiicient. The only hope lay in the Poles and the duke 

of Lorraine. The latter did everything that skill and valour could suggest. He 

threw a reinforcement of 8,000 men into the city, and then retiring beyond the 

Danube with his cavalry, harassed the vizier, and marching rapidly to Presburg, 

there defeated Tekeli, who had been detached to secure the passage over the river 

at that point. But in the meantime the Turkish artillery had efiected a breach in 

the dilapidated walls of the city ; they were already in possession of the outworks, 

and the unfortunate citizens were in hourly expectation of an assault, with its 

attendant horrors. The German succours had not arrived, and the Polish army 

was only beginning to assemble on the frontiers of Silesia. The duke of Lorraine 

was sending message after message to hasten their march ; the emperor was in a 

state of despair in his retreat at Passau, and implored Sobieski to make no delay. 

" My troops," said he, " are now assembling ; the bridge over the Danube is 

already constructed at Tuln, to afi"ord you a passage. Place yourself at their head ; 

however inferior in number, your name alone, so terrible to the enemy, will 

ensure a victory !" * Sobieski was touched by his entreaties, and immediately- 

started at the head of 3,000 cavalry, leaving the rest of his army, numbering 

30,000, to follow ; and traversing Silesia and Moravia with the rapidity of a 

Tartar horde, arrived at Tuln, but found the bridge unfinished and no troops 

assembled, save those of the duke of Lorraine. He was stung Avith chagrin ; but, 

on the solicitations of Lorraine, consented to await there the arrival of the main 

body of his forces. They reached the Danube on the 5th of September, and in 

two days after they were joined by the German succours. The united armies, 

consisting of Poles, Saxons, Bavarians, and Austrians, amounted to 70,000 men, 

and by unanimous consent the chief command was conferred upon John Sobieski ; 

the duke of Lorraine, who had been his rival as a candidate for the throne of 

* Coxe's History of the House of Austria. 



ROUT OF THE TURKS- 227 

Poland, setting a noble example of magnanimous disinterestedness by zealous 
obedience to bis orders. The night of the 11th had been a night of terrible anxiety 
in Vienna. The garrison was exhausted, the breach was practicable, and it was 
feared the Turks would advance to storm it on the morrow. To their relief and 
delight, at the dawn of day the Polish hussars were discerned by the aid of 
telescopes on the heights of Kalemburg. On the same morning the Christians 
began their attack, and though throughout the day they had the advantage, the 
vast masses of the Turkish army remained unbroken. Towards nightfall the 
Polish king had fought his way to the entrenched camp of the vizier, and per- 
ceived him in his tent, sipping coffee with his sons, in a state of tranquil 
indifference. Provoked at this display of nonchalance, he rode forward, sur- 
rounded by a chosen band of followers, shouting out the warcry of " God for 
Poland ! " and repeating, at intervals, the well-known verse, " Non nobis, non 
nobis, Domine exercituum, sed nomini tuo, da gloriam ! " The lancers, as they 
charged, responded by loud cries of " Sobieski ! Sobieski ! " No sooner had this 
dreaded name caught the ears of the Ottomans than they were seized with 
consternation. " Allah ! " exclaimed the I'artar khan, " the king is with them, 
sure, enough ! " Still they m.ade a stout defence, but the Poles committed terrible 
havoc in their reaiks ; and six pashas having fallen, the vizier and his forces fled 
precipitately, leaving his camp and baggage, which contained immense riches, in 
the hands of the victors. 

On the following morning, Sobieski entered Vienna, amidst the acclama- 
tions of the inhabitants, who hailed him with the titles of Father and 
Deliverer, and struggled to kiss his feet, or touch his garment or his horse. So 
great was the crowd of his almost adoring admirers, that it was with difficulty he 
made his way to the church of St. Stephen, where he offered thanks to God on 
bended knees for the success which had attended his arms. After dining in 
public, he returned amidst the same rejoicings to his camp, declaring that that 
was the happiest day of his life. 

When Leopold returned to his capital, the clamours and execrations of the 
populace met him on every side. All the humiliating circumstances attendant on 
his flight, and which in the terror of the moment had been forgotten, now rose 
up vividly before him — his precipitancy, his cowardice, his traitorous desertion of 
■his subjects. His enemies were now scattered, but he owed his delivery to the 
valour of a foreign king ; and as he rode along the streets of Vienna, he could 
hear the booming of the cannon which proclaimed to the world Sobieski's triumph 
and his own disgrace. His manner of meeting the Polish monarch added to his 
humiliation. "How should I receive him?" he inquired of the duke of Lorraine. 
" With open arms," was the magnanimous reply, " for he has saved Christendom!" 
Instead of this, however, his greeting was stiff and formal to the verge of insult: 
a few words of thanks were hastily muttered, and Sobieski withdrew in disgust. 

In five days after, the allied armies set out in pursuit of the enemy, and over- 
taking them, again defeated them, and captured Gran, Avhich had been in 

K 2 



228 



HISTORY or HUNGARY. 



possession of the Ottomans for seventj' years, as well as Visegrad, Eperies, the 
"Five Churches, Szeguedin, and other important fortresses. All the towns which 
had submitted to the Turks in the first panic of the invasion now surrendered, and 
ao-ain acknowledged Leopold. The sultan, enraged at the reverses of his army, 
recalled Kara Mustapha, and invested Solyman Pasha with the chief command. 
The latter instantly marched to the relief of Buda, to Avhich the imperialists were 
now laying close siege, but was repulsed, and had the mortification of witnessing 
the surrender of the place, after it had been in possession of the Turks for a 
century and a half. The latter, after suffering a signal defeat on the plain of 




SOLYJIAN PASHA. 



Mohacs, now precipitately retreated to Belgrade, and abandoned Hungary. 
Throughout the whole of the campaign, a crowd of Magyar nobles, amongst whom 
were Esterhazy, Batthyanyi, Nadasdi, Palfi, and others, had displayed the most 
indomitable valour, and had in no small degree contributed to the successes which 
attended the Christian arms. Instead, however, of feeling grateful for devotion, 
which was certainly inspired by no hope of imperial favour or reward, but simply 
by the hatred of Turkish domination, Leopold and his ministers repaid them by 
cruelty and ingratitude. " They forgot," says the historian Fessler, " that it was 
the Austrian generals who had lost the most important posts ; that it was the 
blunders and oppressions of the Viennese court which had caused the Hungaiittns 



ARREST 0¥ TEKELI. 



229 



to throw themselves into the arms of the Turks, then* ancient and implacable 
enemies ; and that the Magyars, after having borne the whole weight and evils of 
these continual wars, were now at last compelled to purchase the victory by the 
sacrifice of their property and even of their lives.'"'' 

The Christian army soon after separated, and the German auxiliaries returned 
home. Sobieski was irritated by the jealousy of the emperor, who Avas offended 
at his attempts to bring about a reconciliation between him and the malcontents, 
and suspected him of intriguing with Tekeli to obtain the crown of Hungary for 
his son. He therefore withdrew his troops and returned to Poland, and declared 




ARBEST OF TEKELI. 

that he would fight against the Turks, but not against the Hungarians. The 
imperial forces which remained, however, were amply sufficient to prosecute the 
war with success ; and many of Tekeli's followers, despairing of his cause, and 
seduced by the emperor's promises of pardon, abandoned him and laid down their 
arms. Intrigues against the insurgent chief were set on foot at Constantinople 
and upon his failing to relieve Cassau, he was arrested by order of the sultan, and 
sent in chains to the capital. The chief who succeeded him surrendered to the 
imperialists ; the fall of Cassau placed the greater part of northern Hungary in 



History of Hungary, vol. ix. p. 405, 



230 HISTORY OF mmGARY. 

the power of the emperor. Tekeli found means to justify his conduct before the 
sultan ; proved to him that the charges made against him had been the result of 
German intrigues ; and his accusers having been strangled, he was restored to his 
command, and indemnified for his injuries and losses. But it vfas impossible to 
restore courage to his party, who had been disheartened by his arrest, or to make 
amends for the loss of Cassau. Still he might once more have made head against" 
his enemies, and restored the prestige of his former successes, had he not been 
abandoned by the prince of Transylvania. His dominions were fertile, well 
peopled, and abounded in provisions of every sort, and would prove an invaluable 
storehouse to whichever of the contending parties gained him over to its side. 
This vv^as accomplished by exertions of the Austrian ministers, and a treaty was 
concluded at Vienna between Apaffi and the emperor, in which the former agreed 
to receive German troops into his territory, to supply them with forage and 
provisions, to cede to the Austrians the two important fortresses of Clausemburg 
and Deva, and to maintain an offensive alliance against the Turks. Leopold, on 
his side, acknowledged the claims of Apaffi and his son to the throne of the 
principality, and promised, after their death, to abstain from all interference with 
the free choice of the diet in electing a successor. Both the Hungarians and 
Transylvania ns afterwards complained of the infraction, on the part of the 
emperor, of nearly all the articles of this treaty ; but for the present it had the 
effect of completely ruining Tekeli. His partisans deserted him in crovvds, and 
finding his cause completely lost, and being hourly exposed to the persecution of 
the Turkish pashas, he retired to Nicomedia, in Asia Minor, there to lament in 
silence the calamities wdiich had fallen on his country. In a distant corner of 
Hungary, his wife Helena, the widow of Francis Rakotski and the daughter of 
Peter Zrinyi, Avas the first to check the victorious march of the imperial forces. 
In 1686, she remained in command of the fortress of Mungacs, with her two 
children (by her former marriage), and bid defiance to the Austrian army. It 
was in vain that they informed her of the defeat and caj)tivity of her husband ; 
she treated their threats and promises with equal indifference, and made such a 
vigorous defence, that after a siege of five months, General Caprara was forced to 
content himself with the possession of the town, and leave the fortress in the 
hands of its intrepid mistress.* 

Hungary now lay vanquished once more at the feet of Leopold,' and he pre- 
pared to carry out without hindrance his long-cherished project of incorporating, 
it with his hereditary dominions. The circumstances were more favourable than 
ever they had been before, but he and his ministers were still fully aware that 
it was no easy task to destroy the constitution in opposition to the wishes of 
a people so devotedly attached to their liberties as the Hungarians. Experience 
had taught him that his sudden assertion of " absolute power, acquired by the laws 
of war," in 1671 had been a false step, as the result had proved. To declare that 

* The story of Tekeli's courtship with this lady is quaintly told in a curious little book, 
entitled " The Amours of Count Tekeli." London, 1686. 



- PKETENTED PLOT. 231 

Hungary and Transylvania were two provinces dependent upon the Austrian 
crown, was not simply to state a falsehood (for that was a small matter), but to 
contradict treaties and capitulations which both Leopold and his predecessors had 
signed and sworn to observe, and the existence of which was known to all the 
world. To assert a right of conquest was absurdity, for he could not bear arms 
against his own dominions, nor could the suppression of a rebellion release him 
from his solemn obligations. These arguments suggested themselves in 1671 to 
every man in Hungary, and with such powerful effect that the outburst of the 
rage and discontent had involved the kingdom in a bloody war, and placed Leo- 
pold's own capital in danger. It would now have been a flagrant outrage upon 
the public opinion of Europe to overthrow the Hungarian constitution by the aid 
of hired armies collected avowedly for the expulsion of the Turks. A coup d'Stat 
was manifestly impolitic, if not impracticable. He therefore resolved to cloak his 
designs under a show of legality, to break the spirits of the people by cruelty and 
oppression, and terrify them into the surrender of their liberties. All that was 
wanted was a plot, an engine of oppression which ever despot finds ready at 
hand. 

Even those of the Hungarians who had formally submitted to Leopold were 
disafi'ected, for they found their lot no better than when they had been in arms 
against him. The German troops treated the country as a conquered territory, 
and the imperial officers ruled with all the rigour of martial law. All security for 
life and property and liberty was at an end. Whether those severities had 
the desired effect of driving the people into another conspiracy for the overthrow 
of Austrian domination, or not, will in all probability never be satisfactorily 
decided. The Austrian accounts of the transaction distantly allude to the cruel- 
ties of the military, paint the conspiracy in glowing colours as a daring attempt 
to deprive the illustrious house of Hapsburg of its just rights, and find the origin 
of it in the inherent turbulence of the malcontents, and their impatience under 
any rule, however lawful or impartial. The Hungarians deny the existence of the 
conspiracy, and point to the subsequent acts of the imperialists as the best possible 
proof of the truth of their assertion, alleging that those v>fhose ends are infamous 
are seldom choice in the selection of means ; that those who wade to power through 
the blood of the innocent will not hesitate to justify their crimes by slandering 
their victims. In the early part of the year 1687, Tekeli was said to be still in 
the neighbourhood of Mungacs, the fortress in possession of his wife — deserted by 
his followers and with little to sustain him but hope. About this time, also, it 
was said that his sister, the Countess Nadasdi, whose husband had died during 
the siege of the place, left the castle with an imperial passport, and repaired to 
Cassau, Avhere she used every efi'ort to induce the inhabitants once more to take 
•up arms and repair to the standard of their old leader, and that she visited various 
parts of Upper Hungary upon a similar errand. A rumour to this effect having 
got abroad, the commander of the garrison at Cassau caused two women, the 
wives of soldiers, to be arrested, upon pretence that they were emissaries in the 



232 



niSTOKY OF HUNGARY. 




THE PRINCESS HELENA RAKOTSKI. 



THE THEATRE OF EPERIES. 



233 



employment of the disafFected. IJpon their information it was suddenly dis- 
covered that all the principal persons, not only in Cassau and Eperies, but in 
Altsohl, Neusohl, Leutsch, Oedenburg, and Presburg were in correspondence with 
Tekeli and his wife, and were engaged in a conspiracy for the overthrow of the 
emperor's authority. Thousands were accordingly arrested and thrust into prison. 
A tribunal was established at Eperies for the trial and punishment of the accused, 
composed of Count Caraffa, a foreign general of sanguinary disposition, as presi- 
dent, assisted by officers as ignorant and brutal as himself, and a few renegade 
natives. Troops of dragoons were sent out into every part of the country to arrest 
and bring in all those whose property or rank rendered their condemnation desir- 




TIIEATUE OF EMERIES. 

able. Upon the evidence of the two female informers, they were put to the torture 
to wring from them confessions of guilt. After a short examination, conducted 
in secret, those who refused to condemn themselves were either distended upon 
ladders until every joint in their bodies was dislocated, or were burnt on the 
side and back with red hot iron, or had iron bands placed round their foreheads 
and compressed by a screw till their eyeballs started from the sockets. Atroci- 
ties such as these were of daily occurrence both at Debreczin and Cassau, but it 
was at Eperies that the persecutions displayed the full extent of their ferocity. It 
was in the latter that Caraffa established his head-quarters. Though he at first 
declared that it was amongst the protestants that the conspiracy had originated, it 



234 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

soon became apparent that the hatred of the Austrians was not directed against 
any creed or party, but against all who bore the name of Hungarians. Four 
noblemen of great wealth and influence, two of whom Avere catholics, resident in 
Eperies, were selected as the first victims of his vengeance. Partly upon the 
evidence of the two women and partly from confessions wrung from them in the 
midst of excruciating torments, they were condemned to have all their property 
confiscated, to have their fingers cut off", to be then beheaded, their bodies divided 
into quarters and flung on the high road, and their heads placed on stakes 
on a gibbet. To facilitate the work of destruction, a permanent scafibld was 
erected in the centre of the town, which has ever since been known in Hungarian 
history as the "Bloody Theatre of Eperies." Thirty executioners dressed in 
green uniform were employed night and day in torturing, mutilating, and decapi- 
tating. Crowds of the gentry were daily brought in from all parts of the country 
by the soldiers, catholics as well as protestants, arrested wherever found, without 
warrant and without inquiry— some in the churches, some in the streets, some in 
the fields, some in the bosom of their families, and some when out hunting, 
unconscious of danger. Not one was taken with arms in his hands ; upon none 
were found any proofs of participation in a conspiracy. Those who had taken no 
part whatever in the recent Avar met with no greater mercy than those who had. 
It was enough that they Avere wealthy, poAverful, influential, of high descent. It 
Avas in vain that they asserted their innocence or produced the letters of amnesty 
which had been granted them upon laying doAvn their arms and making their 
submission. They Avere charged Avith having corresponded Avith Tekeli and his 
Avife. They asked for proofs — for the production of the letters, or copies of them, 
they Avere ansAvered Avith insults. If they refused to acknoAvledge themselves 
guilty of all that was alleged against them they Avere put to the torture, and every 
incoherent remark or explanation that escaped them in their agony was noted 
down as proof, and upon it they were condemned and executed. Those Avhom 
greater strength of nerve, or powers of physical endurance, or consciousness 'of 
innocence supported through the terrible ordeal, and sealed their lips, were too 
happy if they escaped Avith the loss of their property and Avere liberated from 
their dungeons, and throAvn upon the Avorld mutilated and beggared. Sisters, 
Avives, and friends often cast themselves at Carafi'a's feet, and implored for their 
relatives a fair trial in open court, according to the laAVS of the country. He 
invariably referred them to Vienna, but never delayed the proceedings. The 
application Avas made, and after an agonizing interval of suspense, the ansAver 
came, jDerhaps it Avas favourable, but it was ahvays too late, for when it reached 
Eperies the accused Avere no more. '^ 

Carafi'a's tribunal continued to sit from the month of March until the close of 
the year, and during that period there were but feAV families of distinction in the 
kingdom who did not Avitness the loss of their property or one or other of their 

* For full details regarding this horrible tragedy, see " The Life of Leopold," by Posterla, 
one of his panegyrists, and the '* Histoire des Revolutions de Hongrie." No nation in 



CONVOCATION OF THE DIET. 235 

members. Happy were they who, by enormous bribes, early offered and 
judiciously distributed, saved their households from the ravages of the destroyer. 
But it was only in poverty and obscurity that there was safety. No sort of 
influence, however great, was sufficient to save those whom fortune had raised 
above the rank of the peasantry, from the daily and nightly fear of arrest and 
condemnation. "If," says the biographer and eulogist of Leopold; "the 
Hungarians repented of having submitted to the emperor so soon, and recom- 
menced their old practices,, it must be confessed, either that the yoke imposed 
upon them was extraordinarily harsh, since they preferred embracing the cause 
of a desperate party, to remaining for ever in subjection, — or they were extraordi- 
narily fickle, since they so quickly became desirous of a change." 

As soon as all the leading men in the kingdom were dead or intimidated, the 
country prostrate at the feet of the soldiery, and Turkey rendered incapable of 
interference by the outbreak of disturbances at Constantinople, the Austrian 
ministers, prompted by the Jesuits, strongly advised Leopold to take advantage of 
his successes, establish arbitrary government, and abolish the protestant worship. 
Either from fear or prudence, however, for he had already shown himself regard- 
less of the claims of justice, he contented himself with seeking to obtain from the 
diet an acknowledgment of the hereditary rights of his family to the crown. As 
a preliminary step, he summoned to Vienna a few of the principal nobles Avho had 
escaped the persecutions of Caraffa, and restored to them the crown of St. Stephen, 
which, contrary to law, had been carried from Presburg, and thou, convoked a 
diet in the latter town, to place it upon the head of his son JosephTas " the only 
means of restoring his ancient kingdom to its pristine splendour and felicity." 
The diet accordingly assembled, though with little hope of freedom of discussion, 
for the troops of the emperor occupied every post in Hungary and Transylvania, 
and the Theatre of Eperies was still standing, to which one unguarded word might 
any moment have consigned the proudest of them all. 

• When the members found themselves once more assembled, hov^^ever, courage, 
so much of which is traditional and well nigh ineradicable amongst a people 
unused to slavery, returned, and when the emperor submitted demands, they 
ventured to remonstrate. They declared that, though quite willing to elect and 
crown the archduke Joseph, they could never abandon their ancient right to 
choose their own sovereign, nor acknowledge any hereditary claims to the throne, 
by Avhomsoever preferred ; and they required him, so soon as peace with Turkey 
should be concluded, to withdraw the German troops from the country, and examine 
and redress all their grievances before the coronation. 

Singularly enough, Leopold replied by conciliation. Dignities and honours 
were distributed amongst the magnates ; the protestants were promised liberation, 
if they gave in their adherence to the emperor. Upon the more obstinate or more 

Europe expressed greater horror at the erection of the permanent guillotine in Paris diuing 
the revolution than Austria. The recollection of her own atrocities in Hungary a century 
previously shoiild have moderated her wrath. 



236 HISTORY OP HUNGAUY. 

inflexible, less legitimate influence was brought to bear. Count Drascovics, the 
judex curiae of the kingdom, distinguished himself by his opposition to the court 
party, and his staunch adherence to the ancient constitution. One of the 
ministers of the emperor paid him a visit at his own house, and found him at 
dinner with a number of his friends. He took him aside, assured him that his 
majesty was clement and merciful, and wished well to the Hungarian nobility, 
but to merit his favour they should avoid his displeasure ; and he warned 
Drascovics, in particular, to provide for the safety of himself and his family by an 
entire acquiescence in the orders of his master. The count replied, that when 
these orders were contrary to law, he must needs obey the law. The minister 
then handed him a paper, and notwithstanding the pressing solicitations of 
Dracovics, refused to join the party at dinner. The latter then withdrew into 
another room, to peruse the document which had been left in his hands, but had 
hardly finished reading it, when he dropped down dead. 

This event created a great sensation in Presburg, and the impression it 
produced amongst the Hungarians Avas anything but favourable to the court. 
The more moderate ascribed it to natural causes ; the more violent felt certain it 
was the work of the Jesuits, to whom they imputed the deepest skill in the 
stealthy and mysterious removal of their enemies ; while the partisans of Austria, 
on the other hand, pointed to it in triumph as a manifest mark of God's disappro- 
bation of those who set themselves in opposition to their sovereign. As soon as 
the agitation caused by it had subsided, the diet sent a deputation to the emperor, 
headed by Paul Szechenyi, archbishop of Koloeza, ofi'ering to make the crown 
hereditary in the male line in his family, but steadfastly refusing to admit the 
female line to any share in the succession ; and stipulating, that whenever the 
former should become extinct, the right of election should again revert to the 
diet, and that in the meantime they should continue in the enjoyment of all their 
ancient rights and privileges. To all this- the emperor consented, but refused to 
sanction the thirty-first article of the decree of Andrew II., which gave the nobles 
the right of ofi'ering armed resistance to the king, in case he infringed upon any 
of the other articles of the charter, without being liable to a charge of high treason. 
The diet allowed the reservation, in order to avoid coming to an open rupture, 
and nothing now remained but to proceed with the coronation of the archduke. 
Just as the archbishop was about to administer to him the customary oath to 
observe all the established laws and customs of the kingdom, a sealed paper was 
put into his hands, which, on being opened, was found to contain a new formula* 
forwarded from the court, diff'ering from the ancient one in that it made the 
observance of the rights, liberties, privileges, and customs of the kingdom 

* The words marked in italics are those inserted in the new formula. Nos, &c, juramus, 
&c. quod nos ecclesias Dei, dominos prelates, barones, &c. in suls immunitatibus et liber- 
tatibus, juribus, privilegiis, et antiquis bonis et approbatis consuetudinibus, proid sjqjs?- 
eorum intellechi, et ksu, regio ac communi stahmm consensu dietaliter convention fuerit, conser- 
vabimu?, omnibusque justitiam faciemus, &c. 



RENEWAL OF THE WAR. 237 

dependent upon the sense in which the states and the king should agree to 
receive them. 

As the king was bound to convoke the diet at least at no greater intervals than 
three years, but in reality did convene it only when he pleased, it will be perceived 
that the insertion of this clause enabled him to put his own interpretation upon 
the laws. 

The coronation, hoAvever, took place, with all the usual solemnities, on the 
9th of December, 1687, with great pomp and magnificence, and with a minute 
observance of all the ancient forms and ceremonies. The tribunal at Eperies was 
suppressed, a general amnesty was granted for all past offences, and it was 
arranged that the pay and quartering of the troops, both Hungarian and foreign, 
should be settled by Hungarian and German commissioners, and that a chamber 
of finance, composed of both nations, should be established at Buda. This year, 
1689, saw Leopold everywhere triumphant. Tekeli's Avife had surrendered the 
strong fortress of Mungacs, and thrown herself and her two sons upon the 
emperor's protection. Her husband's party Avas totally subdued. Hungary Avas 
pacified, Transylvania had entered into an alliance, Joseph had been crowned 
king upon more favourable conditions than he had ventured to expect, even the 
natives of Wallachia off'ered their submission, and of all the possessions Avhich the 
Ottomans had once held to the north of the Danube Great Varadin and Temesvar 
noAv alone remamed. Tekeli had retired beyond the Teyss, and remained for a 
long time in the neighbourhood of Gyula, unable to make any eff"ort to retricA'e 
his misfortunes. He protested vainly, but not Avithout show of justice, against 
the concessions of the diet at Presburg, as contrary to the spirit of the constitu- 
tion, and as obtained by the influences of coercion, an armed force being present 
in the place of their deliberations, and the scaffold standing at Eperies. In 
this protest he Avas joined by a considerable number of nobles Avho had gone Avith 
him into exile, and though Austria affected to treat it Avith contempt, there can 
be no doubt it Avas not Avithout its effect upon the minds of the natives. 

The Turkish empire Avas at this period shaken to its very foundation. The 
ill success of the first campaign, and the defeat before Vienna, caused the 
deposition of the khan of Tartary, the execution of four bashaAvs, and even of the 
grand vizier himself, Kara Mustapha. The battle of Mohacs led to the resigna- 
tion of another vizier, and the discontents Avhich these misfortunes occasioned at 
Constantinople, caused another revolution. Mahomet IV. was deposed, and his 
brother Solyman placed on the throne ; the pride of Turkey Avas completely 
humbled, and the new sultan attested his weakness by the earnestness Avith Avhich 
he sued for peace. 

Leopold Avas, hoAvever, too much elated by success to lend a very faA'ourable 
ear to his proposals, and imprudently demanded such concessions as Avould have 
involved the abandonment by the Ottomans of all their dominions in Europe. 
The sultan indignantly refused, and Louis XIV. encouraged him by promises of 
support, Avhich he fulfilled by making an irruption into the empire. Thus 



238 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

seconded, the Turks began to take heart, and under the leadership of the new 
vizier, another Kiupriuli, once more restored the glory of their arms. . He relieved 
Temesvar and Great Varadin, which were blockaded by the imperial troops, and 
after having retaken Nissa and Widdin, laid siege to Belgrade, which had been 
captured the preceding year by the elector of Bavaria. The fortress only held 
out six days, owing to the negligence of the imperialists, who had never repaired 
the breach by Avhich they themselves had entered. Tekeli, on the other hand, 
burst into Transylvania v/ith a Turkish army, defeated the Austrian general 
Heisler, and made him prisoner. Michael Apaffi had died a short time previously, 
and his son of the same name, a youth [of fourteen, had succeeded him in the 
principality. The latter was now driven out, and being joined by some of 
the counties, Tekeli declared himself prince of Transylvania, and sustained his 
claims with vigour. He defeated the combined Austrian and Transylvanian 
forces, and killed the prince of Hanover, who was in command of them. ' His 
fortunes were once more in the ascendant, but he owed his successes less to 
his own skill, than to the folly and weakness of Austria. The latter was com- 
pelled to divide her forces by sending a large army into the empire to support 
the claims of the archduke Joseph to the imperial crown, and she had treated the 
inhabitants of the newly-acquired provinces of Servia and Wallachia with such 
cruelty and oppression that they were ready to rise up against her upon the first 
signal from the insurgents, finding the yoke of the Turks no worse than hers. 

The preparations for following up these successes in 1691, owing to the troubles 
in Constantinople, were conducted without much vigour or activity. Tekeli had, 
at first, been promised an army of 50,000 men to put him in a position to accom- 
plish the total reduction of Transylvania ; but finding himself deceived, and being 
unable to maintain his ground against the Margrave of Baden, who left the 
Danubian provinces to their fate, and forced the passes of Transylvania, he was 
driven back into Moldavia, and Apaffi reinstated upon the throne of the principality. 
He then joined his forces with those of the grand vizier at Semlin, and in 1691 
they both entered Hungary at the head of 100,000 men. Their progress was 
stayed, and their hopes for the m.oment blasted, by the battle of Sulankemen. 
The Margrave of Baden, who commanded the imperial forces, found himself out- 
manoeuvred by Tekeli, who cut him off from his supplies by rendering himself 
master of the Danube, so that his only hope lay in an action, notwithstanding the 
vast numerical superiority of the enemy. His right wing was at first obliged to 
give ground v/ith great loss, and he was beginning to despair of the day, Avhen 
General Dunewald assailed a weak point in the Turkish entrenchments at the head 
of the German and Hungarian cavalry, and with such eff"ect, that the Turks were 
thrown into complete disorder. Their confusion became a rout, when the sudden 
lowering of the standard of the prophet informed them that the vizier himself had 
fallen. 20,000 of the Turks were left upon the field, but the lateness of the 
season and the heavy losses by which the imperialists themselves had purchased 
their victory, prevented them following up their success. 



CAMPAIGNS OF 1695 AND 1696, 239 

Tekeli's services did not protect him from, shafts of envy and malice at the 
Turkish court, and no small portion of his time was taken up in endeavouring to 
■counteract the intrigues which were set on foot for his ruin. Care and anxiety 
were fast making inroads upon his health; but in the ensuing year (1692) his 
position was rendered more comfortable by the restoration of his wife, who, ever 
since her surrender of Mungacs, had been shut up a prisoner in the Ursuline 
convent at Vienna. The pressure which was made upon the emperor's resources 
by the successes of the French, made him now more inclined to listen to offers of 
accommodation, and as a preliminary step,, the Countess Tekeli was exchanged for 
General Heisler, and joined her husband at Constantinople in January of this 
year. 

The margrave of Baden soon after quitted Hungary to succeed the duke of 
Lorraine in the command of the German army, leaving Generals La Croix and 
Caprara to carry on the war ; but nothing of any great importance took place 
d'Uring the campaign which followed his departure, though the emperor had 
received large reinforcements from the electors of Brandenburg and Hanover, the 
bishop of Munster, and particularly from the Irish soldiers who took refuge on the 
continent after the surrender of Limerick. The sultan was embarassed by 
disturbances at home, and was unable to give his serious attention to affairs in 
Hungary. Tekeli was daily soliciting a force sufficiently large to enable him to 
penetrate into Transylvania, where he had a powerful party of adherents ; but he 
soon found that the divan Avas intent upon the proposals made on behalf of the 
emperor by the ministers of England and Holland, and that they were quite ready 
to sacrifice him, if by so doing they could advance their own interests. Instead, 
therefore, of profiting by the inactivity of the imperial army, the vizier quietly 
suffered them to take possession of the Five Churches, Great Varadin, and Gyula. 
The campaign of 1694 produced results of no greater importance. The continued 
changes and contentions which were taking place amongst the Ottoman ministers 
had reduced the Turkish empire to such a state of weakness, that had it not been 
for the vv'ar v/hich Louis XIV. was carrying on against the empire in Germany and 
Flanders, there can be little doubt that the Porte Avotild have been -reduced to the 
necessity of soliciting peace upon any condition its enemies chose to offer. In the 
month of August a feeble attempt was made by the grand vizier at the head of an 
army of 50,000 men to blockade the imperialists near Petervaradin ; but the 
.approach of winter and the want of provisions compelled him to relinquish his 
design, and on his return to Constantinople he Avas strangled for his pains. 

In 1695 the Turks took the field once more, and were this time opposed by 
Augustus, the elector of Saxony, at the head of the imperial armies, but met with 
some success. They directed their attack against Transylvania, took Lippa, and 
near Lagos defeated a large body of cavalry which was on its march to join the 
imperial forces, and killed their leader. General Veterani. This mishap rather 
deranged the elector's plans, and the Turks might have effected an entrance into 
■ Transylvania without molestation, had they not adhered to their old rule of going 



240 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

into winter quarters without fail in the first week of October. The sultan Achmed 
the Second died this year, and was succeeded by Mustapha, his brother, who, 
early in 1696, took the field in person, with the view of saving Temesvar, which 
the imperialists were besieging. He succeeded in defeating the elector in a 
feebly-contested action, — the allied armies being decimated by disease brought on 
by using the water of the martshes. 

In 1G97 affairs assumed a very different aspect. Early in the year a person 
named Francis Tokkay put himself at the head of a number of bandits and 
peasants whom they forced to join them, surprised the fortress of Tokay, and put 
the garrison, amounting to two hundred men, to the sword. Patak shared the 
same fate, and Tokkay then sent a circular to the principal nobility, in which he 
stjded himself a colonel in the service of Prince Tekeli, inviting them to take up 
arms for the recovery of their liberty. No person of note gave him any sort of 
coiintenance, and Prince Francis Rokotski, who was shortly to play so distin- 
guished a part in Hungarian history, hearing tliat it was the intention of the 
insurgents to carry him off by force and put him at their head, retired to Vienna. 
They were soon after defeated and dispersed, and the fortresses they had captured 
recovered. 

The outbreak, however, had the effect of drawing the sultan Mustapha to the 
frontier at the head of a powerful army. He was undecided whether to cross the 
Teyss in search of the Germans and offer them battle, or to invade Transylvania, 
and took counsel of Tekeli, who accompanied him. The latter advised him to 
open the campaign by laying siege to Great Varadin ; and then, in case the 
imperialists came to the succour of the place, they would be compelled to fight 
under a disadvantage, being drawn away from the Danube, by which alone they 
received their supplies. He was overruled, however, by the grand vizier, who 
persuaded the sultan to adhere to his original plan, and. he accordingly advanced 
against the Germans, who were encamped on the northern bank of the Danube 
above Petervaradin. 

The famous Prince Eugene who had learnt the art of war in these Turkish 
campaigns, and who now, for the first time, found himself in the chief command, 
was at the head of the imperial forces, and inflicted a total defeat upon the Turks 
in the battle which folloAved. The grand vizier did not survive the defeat. 
The sultan fled precipitately to Temesvar, placed garrisons in that town and in 
Belgrade, and hurried to Constantinople to suppress the commotions which 
his defeat was likely to excite amongst his own subjects. Eugene poured his 
troops into Bosnia, and captured Serai, the capital, out of the plunder of which 
he paid his troops, and then retired into winter quarters. On his return to 
Vienna, instead of being thanked for his success, he received a cold rebuke 
for disobedience of orders from the punctilious emperor. 

The peace of Byswick would now have enabled Leopold to follow up his 
successes against the Turks, but his treasury was exhausted, and the prospect 
of a vacancy in the Spanish succession made him anxious to conclude the war 



TREATY OF CAllLOWITZ. 



241 



and give his whole attention to Europe. Plenipotentiaries from all the powers 
in alliance against the Turks, accordingly met the sultan's ambassador in the 
little village of Carlowitz near Petervaradin, and through the mediation of 
England and Holland a treaty was concluded, after a negotiation of two months' 
duration. The emperor retained possession of Transylvania, which, though 
nominally subject to Michael ApafR, had in reality been an Austrian province 
ever since the expulsion of Tekeli ; all Hungary north of the Morosch, and west 
of the Teyss, and all Sclavonia, except a small district between the Save and the 
Danube in the neighbourhood of Belgrade. The Turks were permitted to con- 
tinue the protection they had granted to Tekeli, but were prohibited from affording 
any future assistance to the malcontents, and both j^arties agreed to deliver up 




ENVIEONS OF BUDA, 



the rebel subjects Avho might escape into their respective territories."' This 
treaty, which was concluded in November, 1691, was the most memorable and 
most important in the history of the house of Austria. Hungary, and Sclavonia, 
and Transylvania, werei at length secured and made hereditary in the family, and 
the Turks from being the most powerful and most terrible of European nations, 
"sank to a position of feebleness and obscurity from which they have never since 
emerged. 



* Coxe's History of the House of Austria, vol. i. Part II. 



242 TNTEE.NAL CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY. 



(a.d. 1687 — 1691.) During the greater part of the foregoing chapter we have 
been wholly occupied Avith the wars carried on between Austria and Turkey, 
and of which Hungary and Transylvania were generally the theatre. In following 
the march of armies, and chronicling the triumphs of tacticians, the miseries of the 
people, whose vitals are eaten up by the demon of discord, are necessarily in 
some degree lost sight of. To gain a proper idea of the state of Hungary and 
the position occupied by the diet at the period of the treaty of Carlowitz, we must 
go back to the year 1687, in which the states surrendered their right of election, 
and made the crown hereditary in the family of Hapsburg. 

The reader may remember that Tekeli protested against the proceedings of the 
diet of Presburg upon eight grounds : — 1. Because the court of Vienna had used 
illegal and coercive measures to force the diet into a compliance Avith its will, by 
the presence of an armed force, by bribes, promises, and threats. 2. Because the 
whole nation was labouring under the intimidation caused by the bloody Theatre 
of Eperies, and the county assemblies were unable to deliberate freely. 3. 
Because a fixed and positive determination to carry the imperial will into eiFect 
was shown in the terms of the decree by which the diet was convened. 4. Because 
while the members voted under constraint, those who protested acted from their 
own free will. 5. Because in the absence of a great number of the nobility the 
states were not competent to pass a law binding their posterity, and surrendering 
a portion of the liberties which had been in existence for seven centuries. 6. 
Because the house of Austria having been for centuries hateful to the great body 
of the nation, it was not probable that such concessions would have been made 
spontaneously. 7. Because the form of the coronation oath was illegally altered. 
8. Because the Archduke Joseph broke his promises. 

This protest was treated with contempt or indifference, but it is vvorthy of 
attention as being an able defence of the rights of Hungary, and as having 
been fully confirmed in every particular by the subsequent conduct of Austria. 
From the assembling of the diet at Presburg till the peace of Carlowitz, 
during the whole period of the Turkish war, Hungary was treated in every 
respect as a conquered country. The nobles met with insult and outrage, 
and the peasantry were exposed to all' the tyranny and violence which a 
rude and licentious soldiery could inflict. The privileges of the munici- 
palities were abolished or disregarded, the concessions made to protestants 
were nullified, the laws were set aside, and the country was governed solely by 
despotic orders from Vienna, or by the will and pleasure of the officers in 
command of the troops. The palatine vfas, reduced into the mere agent of the 
court. He was summoned to Vienna, and there, without convoking or consulting 
the diet, the sum was fixed which Hungary was called upon to contribute to the 



MILITARY OUTRAGES. 243 

imperial exchequer; and to him was committed the task of apportioning it 
amongst the different counties. Thousands of families were defrauded of their 
property by the officers of the revenue. Their estates were first seized, and then 
they were called upon to prove their right to possess them. 

The troops were quartered on the people at their own discretion or that of their 
commanders. Every individual in the middle class, after furnishing a fixed contri- 
bution to the commissariat, was often compelled to maintain an officer and one 
man in his house and amongst his family. All lucrative employments or offices 
were bestowed on foreigners. All the money of the kingdom Avas gathered into 
the imperial treasury, and the natives were left to effect the exchange of their 
commodities by barter. The primate, grand chancellor and king lived at Vienna, 
and thither was the final resort in all suits and causes ; but so expensive, tedious, 
and doubtful was the process of appeal, that there were few Hungarians 
v/ho did not prefer submitting to the most cruel injustice, to running the gauntlet 
of long and vexatious litigation in a foreign country, and before a foreign tribunal. 
The Hungarian chamber of finance, which the emperor, with a show of favour 
and concession, had established at Presburg, had in reality no other duty than 
to register the decrees of that of Vienna, and to transmit to the Aulic Council 
all the money which the excisemen and farmers of the revenue could wring from 
the people. Many of the proudest families in the kingdom, who could trace their 
descent from the days of Arpad, and who lived amidst their vassals in regal 
splendour, had been utterly extirpated by Caraffa, and their houses left desolate, 
or occupied by troops. Their places Avere now filled up by the German minions 
of the court, or by brutal soldiers Avho had distinguished themselves by their 
unrelenting ferocity, and Avho, void of all sympathy Avith the people, did everything 
in their poAver for the overthroAV of the constitution. The administration of justice 
in the courts became " a mockery, a delusion, and a snare." Bribery, corruption, 
and intimidation took the place of laAV. The Jazyges and Cumaiis, Avho had been 
entitled to all the privileges of the nobility, and the inhabitants of many of the 
free toAvns and boroughs, Avere sold into serfdom to the Teutonic Knights, who 
exacted their dues Avith such terrible severity, that mothers disposed of their 
children to the Turks to procure funds to meet them. Thousands of peasants every 
month crossed the Turkish frontier, preferring to brave all the insolence and 
oppression of the Moslems, to living under the tyranny of those of their oAvn faith. 

Previous to commencing the negotiations for the peace of Carlowitz, Avhether it 
Avas that the emperor Avished to destroy the remnant of liberty which the diet of 
Presburg had left untouched, and that he Avished to take away from the nobility 
all excuse for ever again resorting to foreign aid for the redress of their grievances, 
he summoned at Vienna an assembly of th? deputies of the states. Amongst the 
number Avere the primate and grand chancellor, cardinal Golonitz, prince Esterhazy 
the palatine, Paul Szechenyi, archbishop of Kolocza, and many others of the 
principal magnates of the kingdom. The cardinal Avas employed by the court to 
make knoAvn to them the emperor's object in calling them together. He Avas a 

s 2 



244 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

devout catholic, and no less devoted adherent of the house of Austria, whose 
interests and those of the church he believed to be identical ; and when any 
opportunity of serving either of them presented itself, no other considerations 
Avere allowed to stand in his way. Patriotism was nothing to him ; Catholicism 
everything. He was willing that Hungary should be ruined rather than she 
should be heretic. Amongst his private friends, when he uttered the real 
sentiments of his heart, he frequently made use of an expression which has since 
become famous — " Faciam Himgarimn captavam, postea mendicam, deinde catho- 
licam."'^' Leopold could not have chosen a more faithful exponent of his will. 

At the first conference he had with the deputies he informed them that his 
imperial and royal majesty, in his great and paternal goodness, was anxious to 
assimilate Hungary in every respect to his hereditary dominions — in manners, 
language, customs, and laws ; and he, therefore, called upon them to reject their 
Corpus Juris, and accept at his hands a constitution which certain persons of 
ability had framed at his request. He then remarked upon the great number- of 
nobles in Hungary who, contrary to all received maxims of government, claimed 
exemption from taxation, and proposed that for the future, whilst all who really 
possessed the advantage of illustrious birth should receive due consideration, 
they should lay aside their exorbitant pretensions ; and that those of them who 
possessed the means of living in a certain style, should receive at his hands the 
titles of counts, barons, and chevaliers, and thus be placed on a footing of equality 
with the Austrian nobles ; and, lastly, that for the variable and uncertain 
subsidies by which the expenses of government were then met, they should 
substitute a fixed and invariable contribution, to be called Contributio Continua, 
which should be assessed with strict impartiality. He did not doubt, at the same 
time, that Hungary would cheerfully take upon herself a third of the revenues of 
the whole of his majesty's dominions. 

The pith of the entire proposition was, in short, the abolition of the constitution ; 
the substitution of laws framed by Palm, the secretary of the council of war at 
Vienna, and a monk named Gabriel, both creatures of the emperor, — the " persons 
of ability " referred to in the cardinal's address ; the creation of a distinction 
between the Magyars, lowering the poorer into the rank of commoners, and raising 
the rich into the ranks of the Austrian nobility, and thus abolishing the equality 
which was their proudest boast ; and last and most important, the surrender of the 
last safeguard of liberty, the right of voting the supplies, and the substitution of 
a fixed tax, which would render the emperor totally independent of the people and 
indifierent to their complaints. 

The audacity of the proposals at first struck the deputies dumb with astonish- 
ment; but recovering from their surpris?, they made Paul Szechenyi, the archbishop 
of Kolocza, a brave, able, and patriotic prelate, their mouthpiece, and through him 
informed the emperor, that they had no power to comply with his requests ; that 

* I will make Hungary first captive, then a beggar, then catholic. 



FATE OV TEKELI. 245 

it was illegal to discuss them even beyond the boundaries of the kingdom ; and 
that if they could, they would not. The efforts of the palatine Esterhazy to 
induce them to consent, were met with indignant reproaches, and after a violent 
altercation, the meeting was broken up and the deputies returned home. Though 
thus foiled, however, Leopold did not abandon his illegal courses until they led to 
another outbreak, as we shall shortly see. 

We cannot conclude this chapter without alluding to the fate of Tekeli. After 
the peace of Carlowitz, he passed the remainder of his days in retirement. The 
emperor refused to restore to him his confiscated property, and as a substitute the 
sultan bestowed on him Caransebes and Widdin, as a feudal sovereignty. Maho- 
met, Mustapha's successor, transferred him to Nicodemia, in Asia Minor, where 
he allowed him a handsome pension. He was afterwards neglected by the 
Ottoman court, and falling into great poverty, lived for a long while in one of the 
vilest streets in Constantinople, amongst the Jews and Armenians, receiving a 
miserable pittance to support himself and his family, and obliged to eke out his 
livelihood by carrying on the trade of a vintner. Towards the close of his life, 
singularly enough, he, who had roused the protestants of Hungary to take arms in 
defence of their religion, became a Roman Catholic. He lamented bitterly to the 
last hour having committed his fortunes to the keeping of the Turks, whose 
policy, he said, was as Avavering and fickle as the crescent in their arms. Over- 
come by chagrin, poverty, and disappointment, he died at the age of fifty, in 1705, 
and lies buried in the Greek cemetery. He was a brave, able, and energetic man, 
full of enthusiasm, and actuated all through life by two great passions — love of 
country and hatred of Austria. Even his enemies acknowledged his sincerity, 
however much they might condemn his judgment. 

Happily, his beautiful and accomplished wife, the princess Helena, did not live 
to see the close of his career. She died in 1703, after sharing all his trials and 
reverses. She had left an avenger behind her in the person of Francis Rakotski, 
her son by her former husband. 



CHAP TEE XVIII. 

KJiBELLION OF I'K.AKCIS EAKOISKI. 
A.D. 1700—1711. 

What to do with Hungary after the peace of Carlowitz was a question of no 
ordinaiy difficulty to the Viennese cabinet. To pacify it was absolutely necessary, 
as the emperor was now about to throw all his strength into the war of the 
Spanish succession, and when contending against an enemy so powerful as 
Louis XIV., it would have been in the highest degree dangerous to have left 
another, weaker perhaps, but no less watchful and energetic, in his rear. All 
classes of the population were in the highest state of irritation. Every insult and 
injury that could rouse the hatred and indignation of a high-spirited and turbulent 
race had been heaped upon them. The clergy had been treated with studied 
neglect, or oj)en and marked contempt ; the nobles had been harassed and outraged 
by the government officials in every possible manner ; the free tov/ns had been 
despoiled of their privileges ; great numbers of the peasantry had been sold into 
slavery, and those who remained were suffering from religious persecution. There 
Avas clearly no hope of lasting tranquillity. The ink was scarce dry on the treaty 
of Carlowitz, when another storm began to lower. There were but two ways of 
arresting it: either to redress all the grievances of which the Hungarians com- 
plained, or to deprive them of all means of resistance. To have adopted the 
former would have been to undo all that Austria had been fighting for more than 
a century to accomplish ; but, in the present posture of affairs, a no less costly and 
less troublesome process presented itself, and it was resolved to try it. Some 
native commissioners were accordingly appointed to take into consideration, in 
conjunction with the imperial officers, the best means of removing the most 
serious of the evils complained of, and through their instrumentality many of the 
nobles obtained compensation for private injuries; but the state of the country, 
and of the people generally, was in no way improved. 

The emperor determined, therefore, to render insurrection impossiblcj by a total 
disarmament, and by dismantling all the fortresses in the kingdom which might 
prove troublesome in case of an outbreak. A general search for arms was 
accordingly commenced in Upper Hungary, and for some time carried out with 
great vigour, but afterwards abandoned, for what reason was not known. Many 
of the principal castles were razed to the ground, and an endeavour was made 
to weaken the resources of the malcontents, by raising several native regiments, 



FRANCIS HAKOTSKI, 247 

and draughting them out of the kingdom for foreign service, a measure which 
had been already adopted with regard to the hussars. 

All this, however efficacious Austria might think it, only irritated the people 
still more, and animated them with a still greater desire to throw off a yoke which 
was every day becoming more irksome. The feeling of discontent was stimulated 
by the intrigues of France, which pursued Leopold with an animosity which 
neither time, nor distance, nor failure could damp. Everything was ripe for 
arising ; nothing was wanting but a leader, and as the fittest person to fill that 
office, the eyes of the government and of the disaff'ected were both turned to 
prince Francis Rakotski. 

He Avas the third of that name, and was born in 1676, at Borshi, a country 
house not far from the fortress of Patak.* He was the son of Helena Zrinyi, 
daughter of the unfortunate Peter Zrinyi, and of Francis Rakotski. He had a 
brother of the same name, who died in infancy, a,nd a sister, Juliana, four years his 
senior, of whom we shall speak hereafter. His father died when he was but five 
months old, and to his mother, so celebrated for her beauty, her misfortunes, and 
her heroism, was committed the care of his inheritance and his education. 
Helena, finding no safety for herself or her children in either of the castles of 
Patak or Makovicz, into which she had been compelled to admit German 
garrisons, took refuge in that of Mungacz, which was occupied by her mother- 
in-law, Sophia Baihori, the widow of George Rakotski. The latter was a warm 
partizan of the emperor, and her harsh temper and stern bigotry made Helena's 
life at Mungacz a weary one enough. At length she was relieved from constraint 
by the death of Sophia, and was now enabled to bestow her hand and fortune 
upon the insurgent chief, Tekeli, who, during the lifetime of her mother-in-law, 
had been a warm but unsuccessful suitor. Her gallant defence of the fortress 
against the imperial forces has been already mentioned, as well as the long 
negotiations carried on by Tekeli with the imperial court, before he could obtain 
the consent of Austria to his marriage. Helena had but too much reason to hate 
the house of Hapsburg, and cling to her native country. The revolutionary 
leader could not have chosen a wife better fitted to sympathize in his hopes and 
efforts, and cheer his drooping courage. There was a dark shade of sorrow 
running through all she remembered of her early youth, and which lent new 
bitterness to her detestation of foreign domination. Pier father, count Zrinyi, 
and her uncle, Frangipani, had died on the scaff'old at Vienna, amidst the sneers 
and curses of an alien soldiery ; and the harshness of her mother-in-law had but 

* Th.e following table traces his descent from Geo. Rakotski I. : — 
Geohgb Rakotski, prince of Transylvania, elected 1630; died 1648. 

George, succeeded 1648 ; killed 1660. 

I 
1. Francis, b. 1645 ; d. 1667.=:i:l.elena, d. of Peter Zrinyi, d. 1703.=2. Emerik Tekeli. 

I 
Francis LEopoLD,=:Charlotte Amelia, princess of Hesse Rheinfeld, 
d. 1735. d= 1722. 



248 HISTOHY OF HUNGARY. 

nursed the memory of her wrongs. Whether her zeal for the national cause was 
heightened by her aifsction for Tekeli, or her affection for Tekeli was deepened 
by her devotion to the interests which he fought to defend, must be left to 
the decision of those who claim accurate knowledge of the workings of woman's 
heart ; but it is certain that her blind submission to his will was the means 
of doing serious injury to her infant son. The counsellors of her husband saw 
in him a rival of their master, who might one day prove powerful enough to 
grasp and secure a sceptre which they were seeking to render independent by 
slow and painful efforts. By their intrigues, therefore, Francis, in his early 
boyhood, was exposed to a thousand dangers and fatigues, from which his tender 
age ought to have saved him. He was dragged from one part of the kingdom to 
the other, in the march of the armies of his father-in-law, and compelled to 
undergo all the hardships which fall to a soldier's lot in active service. The 
vigorous constitution, and the patient temperament with which Providence had 
gifted him, brought him safely through an ordeal which few children could have 
undergone ; and his disappointed persecutors, in order to get rid of him, formed 
the design of cutting him off by poison. One of his servants was offered a bribe 
of a castle and large estates in case he became the minister of their will; but he 
had the manliness to repel their proposals with indignation, and thus preserved 
his master for a more stirrmg and ambitious career, than even the fear-haunted 
imaginations of his enemies had ventured to depict.-'' 

After the defeat of the Turks at Vienna and Parkani, Tekeli retired to Great 
Varadin, but, while there, found that the intrigues of his enemies at the Ottoman 
court were leading the sultan to entertain strong suspicions of his fidelity. As a 
means of allaying them, he bethought him of sending his step-son Francis as a 
hostage to Constantinople, and preparations were already being made for the boy's 
departure, when the prayers and tears of his mother saved him from an exile from 
which, in all likelihood, he would never have returned. 

After the surrender of Mungacz, the princess Helena found herself at the mercy 
of Austria, for although an article in the capitulation reserved to her the right of 
residing in any part of Hungary she pleased, and, as guardian of her children, 
of disposing of all the domains which still belonged to them, no sooner had 
she laid down her arms, than she received orders to repair forthwith to Vienna. 
Refusal might have been dangerous, resistance was impossible. She set forward 
on her journey, and on her arrival at the gates of the capital received the first 
taste of the insults which were still in store for her. She and her suite were for 
three hours kept waiting at the barrier, exposed to the gaze of a mob whom the 
news of her approach had collected, and was then conducted without ceremony to 
a convent in the suburbs. She was now informed that it was his imperial majesty's 
desire that her children should be taken from her and committed to the care of 
cardinal Colonitz. That he might enter upon his new office with the least possible 

* Histoire des Revolutions de Hongrie, p. 150. 



MARRIAGE OF HIS SISTER. 249 

delay, the cardinal sent his carriage that same evening to bring them away. 
They had no sooner entered his house and saluted him, than he carried off Juliana 
to an Ursuline convent in the neighbourhood. Terrified by the lonely and 
secluded aspect of the place, knowing little of her conductor and nothing as to 
whither he was leading her, the young girl at first refused to enter. To over- 
come her reluctance, Colonitz had to resort to force, and was brutal enough to 
push her in with his foot. Her brother was at the same time shut up in a private 
house, where for three days he heard nothing of his relatives. At the end of that 
period he was permitted to bid his mother a hasty farewell, and was hurried off 
into Bohemia, where he remained for five years, partly in Prague and partly in the 
little town of Neuhaus, under the tuition of the Jesuits. 

The great object of the cardinal was to induce him and his sister to assume 
the cowl and the veil, and bid adieu to the world, either with the view of his 
extinguishing the Rakotski family, which for many generations had been one of 
the firmest bulwarks of Hungarian freedom, or of securing their large possessions 
for the church. Probably neither motive predominated. Colonitz had cunning 
sufficiently comprehensive to make the same means conduce to two great 
ends, and, doubtless, sought to strike down with the same blow the enemy, 
both of his faith and of the detestable policy by which Austria sought to 
propagate it. 

It is, however, satisfactory to know that, whatever his design might have been, 
it was totally unsuccessful. Renowned as the Jesuit fathers were even then for 
their skill in moulding the minds of youth after their own hearts, Francis was 
proof against all their influence and persuasions, and evinced an obstinate attach- 
ment to the vanities of the world, and an obstinate dislike to the religious 
seclusion of the cloister, which filled his instructors with holy indignation. 

His sister proved equally intractable. Whatever want of firmness and resolu- 
tion her sex might have entailed upon her, was supplied by an ally which, 
more than once in the Avorld's history, has proved triumphant over all restraints, 
whether civil or ecclesiastical, and has many a time carried its point in spite of 
fire and sword and flood. The fame of her beauty, and her wealth, had spread 
far and wide through the kingdom. Her forced confinement in the convent had 
surrounded her with romance, and inflamed the ardour of many a man, who, had 
she been free and happy, would have looked coldly on her charms. Full a 
hundred nobles fell in love with her, for no better reason than that they had never 
seen her and could have but small hopes of winning her. Count Aspemont- 
Reckheim, the commandant-general of Upper Hungary, proved himself the ablest 
and most adroit of them all, and in a case like this, tact and ability were prima 
facie evidence of worthiness. He heard of the absence of the cardinal at Rome, 
whither he had repaired to take part in the election of Pope Alexander VIII., 
and hurrying to Vienna, managed to obtain the permission of the emperor to pay 
his addresses to the young princess in person, and to ask her mother's consent to 
his marriage. He was successful in each step, and when Colonitz returned, he 



250 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

found, to his infinite chagrin, that the bird had flown, and the cage Avas 
empty. 

Francis no sooner heard of his sister's marriage than he quitted Prague, and 
suddenly arrived in Vienna. The cardinal declared that he had no business to 
come, that he had given hiin full power to manage his property, and desired him 
to return to Prague in three days. Rakotski declined to comply, and thanking 
the cardinal for his zeal for his welfare, signified his intention of henceforth 
assuming the direction of his own afiairs himself. Colonitz then, as a last 
resource, obtained an order from the emperor commanding the prince to travel in 
Italy, in the hope that during his absence his stewardship would still continue. 
In this he was again disappointed, for the Countess d'Aspemont, aided by Count 
Bathyanyi, took that office upon herself. 

His travels lasted for a year, and upon his return he married Eleonora, princess 
of Hesse Pvheinfeld, and in consequence incurred the extreme displeasure of the 
emperor, who still claimed the right of acting as his guardian, and caused him to 
be arrested on his return to Vienna. The production of a patent, hoAvever, which 
had been granted him a year previously, declaring him of full age, procured his 
release, and once more finding himself his OAvn master, he determined to take up 
his abode upon his paternal estates in Hungary. He lived here for some time in 
•complete retirement; but he soon found that, go where he would, or act how he 
might, Austria was resolved to give him no peace. 

An irreconcilable jealousy already existed between him and the imperial court. 
The history of his family was no very pleasant story to brood over : all the 
wrongs it had suff'ered from the house of Hapsburg — the execution of his grand- 
father and great uncle, the condemnation of his cousin to perpetual imprisonment, 
the degradation of his father from his ofiice and authority, his forced retirement 
into private life, the banishment of his father-in-law, and the imprisonment of 
his mother, in defiance of the terms upon which she had capitulated,— were 
calamities which might well sour the sweetest temper, and nurse in the 
tenderest heart hatred of the oppressor and hope of revenge. On the other hand, 
Austria regarded him with a mistrust for which her own injustice had given 
good foundation, and she evinced it by a series of petty annoyances which soon 
brought matters to a crisis. German garrisons were placed in all his castles and 
fortresses, and the commanders not only encroached upon his seigneurial rights, 
but treated his tenantry with so much cruelty that they at last rose in insur- 
rection, though without the knowledge or co-operation of their landlord, and 
were not reduced without some trouble. Spies constantly watched him in every 
direction, and his correspondence with his mother, who had rejoined her husband 
at Constantinople, Avas regarded with extreme suspicion. 

About this time overtures seem to have been made to Rakotski on the part of 
France, with the view of inducing him to take up arms against the emperor, and 
he seems to have listened to them, and entered into some arrangements Avith 
others of the discontented nobles for that purpose. It is, hoAvever, extremely 



HIS ARREST. 251 

difficult to arrive at the exact truth of the matter. The existence of a widely- 
extended conspiracy, centring in Rakotski, is as stoutly affirmed by the Austrians 
as it is stoutly denied by the Hungarians ; but there can hardly be any doubt 
there existed at ^ all events some thoughts of an insurrection, and that it was 
instigated by France. 

There was a Fleming, named Longueval, at this time in Hungary, a man of 
considerable ability, and very winning manners and extended information, who 
managed to insinuate himself into Rakotski's confidence — all the more easily, as 
the latter was extremely fond of conversing in the French language, which 
Longueval 'spoke fluently. After a long course of intimacy, during which Lon- 
gueval is said to have acted as the prince's confidential agent in carrying 
on his negotiations with France and the Hungarian malcontents, he took his 
departure for the purpose of visiting Liege, his native town. Three months 
afterwards, Rakotski received from his sister the news of his arrest at Lintz, and 
the discovery upon his person of letters implicating himself and Sirmay, and 
several other nobles. What followed proves, either that the prince was labouring 
under the influence of extraordinary, if not incredible infatuation, or that the 
whole story of the conspiracy Avas a fabrication, Longueval a lying informer, and 
the letters forgeries. Upon receiving this news he made no attempt to escape, 
although he was but eight leagues distant from the Polish frontier, and he 
displayed equal phlegm or indifference upon learning the arrival of General 
Solari at Eperies the same evening. The latter had orders to arrest him, but 
some kindness shown him by Rakotski's mother, when a prisoner in the 
Seven Towers at Constantinople, made him hesitate to execute his task in person. 
He, therefore, sent two captains at the head of a battalion of infantry. They 
placed a cordon round the castle in which the prince resided, broke op>en the 
gates, disarmed the guard, and mounting the staircase, at the head of fifty men, 
forced an entrance into his chamber where he lay in bed with his wife, who 
was then in an advanced state of pregnancy. The soldiers formed a circle round 
the room Avith levelled arms, and the two officers approached the bed with cocked 
pistols in one hand and lighted candles in the other, and called upon Rakotski to 
surrender. Resistance was out of the question. He rose, dressed, and was con- 
ducted in his own carriage to Eperies, and thence to Neustadt, where he was shut 
up in the same dungeon which had formerly contained his maternal grandfather, 
Count Zrinyi. He was confined here for six weeks, in ignorance of the nature of 
the charge which had caused his arrest, and at last two officers were sent down 
from Vienna to examine him. He protested against being called upon to answer 
their interrogatories, and claimed the right, which by the Hungarian constitution 
was secured to every Magyar magnate, of being tried by the diet only, but at 
length consented under protest to answer, as a proof that his reluctance was 
not owing to his guilt. He was then confronted with Longueval, v/ho was 
abashed by the presence of his injured benefactor, and stammered out with 
hesitation and difficulty, a list of overt acts of treason, all of which Rakotski 



252 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

solemnly denied. Guilty or innocent, made, however, little difference. His con- 
demnation was resolved upon in any case. As a last resource, he gained over one 
of the officers commanding the troops which kept guard over him, and through 
his instrumentality, made his escape in the uniform of a dragoon, and took refuge 
in Poland, after numerous romantic adventures and hairbreadth escapes. His 
friend, Sirmay, was arrested the same day as Rakotski, but Berczeny, another 
noble, who was compromised by Longueval's information, reached Poland in 
safety. 

The government now proceeded to pass sentence of condemnation upon the 
prince, without any further delay. He was found guilty of the crime of high 
treason ; his property was confiscated, and large rewards were offered to any 
person who would secure and deliver him up, dead or alive. His position in 
Poland, consequently, became one of considerable danger, for at that period the 
agents of the powerful were not over scrupulous as to the means they made use of 
to accomplish their ends. Mere residence in a foreign country was not, as at 
present, a guarantee for the personal safety of those who were obnoxious to their 
own government. He was, therefore, obliged to change his residence frequently, 
and to assume a variety of disguises. No efforts were left untried by the Austrian 
ambassador in Warsaw to procure his extradition, but all his proposals were in- 
dignantly rejected by the Polish nobility, most of whom looked upon the Haps- 
burgs as the sworn enemies of all free nations. 

After a year and a half of retirement in Poland, Rakotski had brought his nego- 
tiations with France and with the Hungarian nobility to such a state of maturity, 
that he thought he might safely venture upon an invasion of Hungary. The state 
of affairs in Europe was highly favourable to the execution of his design. The 
war of the succession was still raging with varied success ; but so far the balance 
seemed to incline in favour of France, although England and Holland had joined 
the ranks of her enemies. The emperor's ministers were alarmed by the successes 
of Charles XII., an old ally of Louis and a fast friend of the Rakotski family, 
against Poland, and by the fear that, in case any disturbances broke out in 
Hungary, the insurgents would receive aid from Turkey. At last the emperor 
withdrew the principal part of his troops to defend himself against the attacks 
of the elector of Bavaria, who had espoused the cause of Louis XIV., and 
finding the coast clear, Rakotski determined to issue from his retreat and 
raise the standard. He accordingly commenced his march at the head of 
a few Polish guards of the palatine early in June, 1703. He had already 
sent out emissaries through the whole of Hungary to apprise the people of 
his coming, and risings of the peasantry had already taken place in many 
parts of the kingdom. On the sixteenth of June he crossed the Caparthians and 
was then joined by a riotous horde of peasants headed by persons of their own 
rank, .and mostly armed with scythes and forks. This motley band of recruits 
hailed him with shouts of joy, and immediately agreed to obey him in everything 
and follow him everywhere. His first care was to introduce some sort of disci- 



HE HEADS THE llSrSTJRKECTION. 



253 




PRINCE FRANCIS RAKOTSKI. 



254 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

pline, to appoint officers, and restrain their wild licence and brigandage. Having 
reduced them at least to partial order, he began his march, and was speedily rein- 
forced by crowds of volunteers from every quarter. In the duchy of Mungacz, 
where his mother's memory was still cherished and revered, the inhabitants of the 
villages thronged to his quarters with bread, and Avine, and meat, and supplies of 
every description. The women knelt down by the wayside, and, according to the 
custom of the Greek churches, saluted him with the sign of the cross, and pointed 
him out to their children as their deliverer. Few of the men entered his camp 
without enlisting under his banner. Half armed, unorganized, and badly officered, 
such was their confidence in their own rude courage, and their devotion to the 
cause, that they declared their readiness to march wherever he led, and live or die 
by his side. 

His army now amounted to about five thousand infantry and three hundred 
cavalry, and rumour doubled the number. With this force he determined 
to push on and attack the fortress of Mungacz, which was garrisoned by five 
hundred Germans, many of whom were worn-out veterans, and many more 
secret adherents to his cause. He had scarcfe entered the town, however, 
when he was surprised by the imperial forces, was repulsed, and made his 
escape with difficulty. He reached the frontiers of Poland in safety, and there 
remained inactive till joined by Bercsenzi with additional supplies of men and 
money from Poland and France, and descending once more into the plains 
of Hungary, issued a manifesto setting forth his grievances, calling upon the 
inhabitants to repair to his standard, drove before him several small detach- 
ments of the enemy ; and the courage of his troops being roused by these 
successes, he determined to pass the Teyss, though the heavy rains had 
inundated the whole district in its vicinity. His infantry were but half clothed, 
and were marching day after day along roads where the mud rose to the 
knee at every step, or wading across marshes up to the middle in water. Still, 
in spite of all these toils and hardships, and in defiance of all difficulties, thou- 
sands daily thronged to his standard, abandoning houses, goods, and family, to 
combat for liberty. The river was passed by the aid of smaU wherries ; and upon 
the news of his arrival in Upper Hungary spreading abroad, those nobles whom 
fear had hitherto kept quiet, hastened to declare for the invader, and led their 
vassals to his Catop. He now laid siege to Kalo ; but, owing to the want of 
artillery, a furious assault made by his troops was repulsed, and it was not till 
firebrands had been cast into the town, and many of the houses were in flames, 
that the inhabitants rose and compelled the garrison to surrender. By this 
success, Rakotski gained possession of four pieces of artillery, a very seasonable 
accession to his armament. Somlio fell before him in like manner, and before the 
close of the year he Avas at the head of tAventy thousand men, had captured all 
the smaller forts in the east of Hungary, and had reduced Zolnoc and Tokay 
on the Teyss, and the central fortress of Erlau. 

The court of Vienna Avas thunderstruck by a movement at once so sudden and 



SUCCESSES OF THE INSURGENTS, 255 

unexpected. There was nothing but confusion and division in its councils. The 
elector of Bavaria, aided by France, had made himself master of Passau. and 
Lintz, and was already threatening Vienna itself. Amongst all the Hungarian 
magnates, count Simon Forgacz was the only one whose fidelity to the imperial 
cause promised to throw many obstacles in Rakotski's way. Count Bei'czenyi had 
in the meantime overrun the mountainous districts of Upper Hungary, taken 
Scepuse and Levitsch, obtained possession of the towns in the neighbourhood of 
the mines, and sent his marauding parties even into Austria and Moravia. Early 
in the year 1704, count Karoly, a powerful magnate of Lower Hungary, alienated 
by the neglect of the court, -went over to the insurgents, roused the peasantry, 
occupied all the open country below the Danube, and established a communication 
with Berczenyi on the other side. The emperor was anxious to treat for peace as 
the only means of saving his crown, and commissioned the archbishop of Colocza 
to open negotiations with Bakotski for this purpose. The latter consented to an 
interviev/, and appointed Gyongos as the place of meeting, and towards the close 
of the month of March he left the siege of Agria, which he was then carrying on, 
in order to attend the conference. To all proposals, on the part of the archbishop, 
Rakotski replied, that he would consent to no peace the maintenance of which was 
not guaranteed by foreign powers, as the Hungarian people had suffered too much 
from Austrian perfidy ever to place any trust in her oaths or promises-. To such 
a treaty Leopold, of coiu-se, had no thoughts of agreeing, and the negotiations 
were consequently broken off in a few days. During their continuance, the 
Austrian envoy several times inquired with an air of surprise, what was the cause 
of all this violence and bloodshed, a,nd talked, as of old, of clemency, benignity, 
mildness, and oblivion in case the insurgents laid down their arms ; but Rakotski 
silenced him by an explicit declaration that nothing less than a positive redressal 
of each grievance complained of in the manifesto, which he had issued on 
commencing the war, would satisfy him. 

He had scarcely returned to Agria, when he was joined by count Forgacz, 
hitherto a major-general in the emperor's service. After having sworn allegiance 
to Rakotski, he recounted to hina all the injuries he had experienced at the 
emperor's hands, all the false charges and suspicions' which had been heaped up 
against him at Vienna, and for which he was on the point of being arrested when 
he escaped. • 

The consternation at Vienna had now reached its height, General Heuster was 
dispatched with a large body of troops to the south of the Danube, and the 
garrison was drawn out from Passau under General Schlick, to oppose the 
insurgents in the north. After a few feeble efforts, however, to maintain their 
position, they were compelled to fall back, as they found the whole nation in 
arms. The one took refuge in Presburg, and the other continued his retreat to 
Vienna, for the purpose of protecting the capital. Another attempt at negotia- 
tion was now made. On the part of the Hungarians the same conditions were 
still adhered to. 1. The acknowledgment of Rakotski as independent prince of 



256 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 



Transylvania, to which dignity the states had unanimously elected him a short 
time previously. 2. The abolition of the hereditary monarchy, and the revival 
of the article in the oath of King Andrew, which authorised armed resistance, in 
case the king in any way infringed upon the constitution or upon the privileges of 
the nobility. 3. The expulsion of the Jesuits and all other religious orders 
which were considered dangerous to the peace and freedom of the country. 
4. The removal of foreign officers and foreign garrisons. 5. The appointment of 
Berczenyi as palatine. 6. The complete toleration of the protestant worship, and 
the restoration to that sect of the four hundred churches of which it had been 
deprived. But this conference had no better result than those which had gone 
before it, and when it was broken up, the insurgents secured passages over the 
Danube, joined the French in preparing an attack upon the capital, and while 




FAC-SIMILE OF THE SIGNATURES OF RAKOTSKI AND BERCZENYI TO THE MANIFESTO. 

the Bavarian army hung upon the opposite frontier of the empire, Karoly so 
closely menaced Vienna that the citizens prepared for flight. 

Leopold now determined to make a desperate effort to drive his French and 
Bavarian enemies from Germany, and prevent their co-operating with Rakotski, 
and having obtained the aid of Great Britain, the splendid victory obtained by 
Marlborough at Blenheim once more placed his star in the ascendant. He was 
enabled to send all his forces against tlj^ Hungarians, and General Heuster having 
obtained a signal victory over them, drove them back from the Austrian frontier, 
and compelled them ever afterwards to confine their operations to their own 
country. 

In October, 1705, Leopold, the emperor, died, after one of the longest 
reigns recorded in the annals of his house, during the whole course of which he 
had displayed an amount of perfidy, cruelty, and injustice, towards Hungary, 
which no arguments could justify, and no turbulence on her part could palliate. 
Joseph, his son and successor, had been, as we have already said, crowned 
king of the Romans and king of Hungary at an early age, but, with childlike 



ELECTION OF RAKOTSKI BY THE DIET. 257 

deference to his father's will, never attempted to take any part in the govern- 
ment. He always displayed great courage, great magnanimity, and a disposition 
towards mildness and conciliation, which he certainly did not inherit from 
Leopold. The latter, however, had the good sense to perceive how much he 
himself had suffered from the instruction of the Jesuits, and took care not to 
submit his children to the same training. Joseph, therefore, was not slow to 
observe how much the empire suffered from the troubles in Hungary, and showed 
himself disposed to put an end to them by granting an amnesty, and redressing 
many of the grievances of which the insurgents conjplained. His designs were 
favoured by the successes obtained by his forces over Rakotski, and possibly 
might have succeeded, if the Maygars had not already suffered too much, easily to 
forget or readily to forgive. 

His offers were rejected, and that this might be done with greater pomp and show 
of legality, Rakotski summoned a diet at Setzim, to which all the magnates 
and prelates of his party repaired, and deputies from all the counties and free 
towns, except four or five, which contained German garrisons. A large tent was 
erected between two lines of the army, in which the assembly was to take place. 
The proceedings were opened in the usual way, by the celebration of mass by the 
bishop of Agria, and after a short address from Rakotski the deliberations com- 
menced. After lengthened discussions they resolved to form a regular con- 
federation, similar to that of Poland, with a responsible chief, or head, whose title 
should convey the idea, not so much of a master as of an administrative officer. 
They, therefore, determined to name him Dux, or leader, and elected Rakotski to fill 
the office, and agreed that he should be assisted by a council of twenty-four senators, 
Avhom they called upon him to name. Fearing, however, to make himself 
obnoxious to the many whom he might offend by passing them over, he for a 
long while declined to accept the power which they assigned him, but at last 
consented, upon their agreeing to present him Avith a list of those whom they 
thought worthy of the office. Being now proclaimed dux, and chief of the 
confederates, a mass was sung, and Rakotski, placing his hands between those of 
the bishop, of Agria, took the oath in the form drawn up for the occasion, and 
then, according to the ancient Germanic custom, was elevated on a buckler by the 
principal magnates ; who, with the prelates, senators, and the. deputies of the 
counties and the free towns, swore to obey and be faithful to him, and to fulfil 
and keep all the statutes of the confederation. 

They then replied to Joseph's proposals by offering to acknowledge him as 
king in case he abandoned his claim to the throne as a hereditary possession, 
ceded Transylvania, to their leader, revived the oath of King Andrew, and, in fact, 
yielded to all the demands which they had before made. The emperor, of course, 
rejected their conditions, and the war was carried on with renewed vigour. The 
insurgents had again rallied, had driven the Austrian army into the island of 
Schutz, blockaded all the fortresses held by German garrisons, and ravaged the 
frontiers of Austria, Styria, and Moravia, and shut up the imperial general 

T 



258 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

Rabatin in Transylvania. As a last resource, Joseph sent General Herbeville, 
Avith orders to recover Transylvania at all hazards. Herbeville, accordingly, 
raised the blockade of Great Varadin, forced the entrenched pass of Sibo, and 
entering Transylvania, reduced the whole country and re-established Austrian 
rule. On the other hand, Styria and Moravia were still naolested by predatory 
hordes, and Vienna itself kept in a state of continual alarm, as the insurgents 
pushed their incursions to the very walls.. Joseph once again made great 
exertions to pacify the insurgents. He proposed to Eakotski to give him the 
margravate of Bengau in exchange for Transylvania, and to restore him his 
estates in Hungary, and make him a prince of the empire ; and sought to support 
his offer by calling in the aid of his Avife and sister, who had been shut up in 
prison by Leopold, but were now liberated. He at the same time acknowledged 
the confederacy, and agreed to confirm all the rights and privileges he had sworn 
to maintain at his coronation. But Rakotski's wife, Avith Spartan courage, instead 
of advocating peace, encouraged her husband never to lay down his arms until he 
had achieved the objects for which he had taken them up ; and then he himself 
resolutely refused to listen to any proposals made to him personally apart from 
the states. The latter, at the same time, Avould not abate one jot of their original 
demands, and hostilities Avere consequently resumed, after a short truce. 

In June, 1707, an assembly of the confederate states, to which thirty-one out of 
the fifty-two sent deputies, met at Onod, and although Rakotski shoAved himself 
disposed to conclude an honourable peace AAdth the ncAV emperor, the house of 
Austria was formally deposed and the throne declared vacant. Almost before the 
assembly had broken up, Rakotski received a message from the czar of Russia, 
informing him that he intended to use his influence to procure his election to the 
throne of Poland. This proposition caused him great uneasiness, as it promised 
to involve the affairs of Hungary in A'^ery serious difficulty. To have aspired to 
the throne as the nominee of a foreign despot Avould have justly roused the ire 
and opposition of the nobles, and Avould have given deep offence to the Swedish 
king, whose enmity to Russia was implacable. He therefore declined the dan- 
gerous honour with a firmness, and, at the same time, Avith a prudence and deli- 
cacy Avhich did him the highest credit. 

These negotiations ended, the Avar continued with varied fortune. The mate- 
rials of Avhich the national army Avas composed necessarily militated against its 
success. The supplies AVere uncertain, the levies fickle, impatient of discipline, 
and badly armed. The nobles, as soon as their bursts of enthusiasm passed 
away, greAv tired of the marching and countermarching, the hardships, perils, and 
fatigues of guerilla Avarfare, and sighed for the repose of their castles. Those 
who had led their peasantry into the field saAV with alarm that their estates Avere 
lying uncultivated and their rents unpaid^ and trembled lest the triumph of inde- 
pendence, if it did triumph, should find them beggared. Others Avere jealous 
of their leader's fame, and accused him of studying his OAvn intqjFests more than 
the national Avelfare, and of seeking to found a dynasty upon the ruins of public 



SURRENDER OP THE PATRIOT ARMY. 259 

liberty. The peasantry were worn out and impoverished by the protracted hos- 
tilities, and no longer displayed their former ardour. The boasted succours which 
France had so often promised never came ; the assurances of other sovereigns 
proved equally deceitful, and Rakotski found himself obliged to contend against 
the whole force of the empire with a mere handful of followers. 

Joseph, in the early part of 1708, summoned a diet at Presburg, composed of 
those magnates and deputies from the towns who still adhered to him, and by 
opening it with ordinary formalities, sought to give an air of legality^ to his pro- 
ceedings. The confederates looked with contempt on the small number who 
obeyed the call; and the emperor had reason to regret the step he had taken, when 
he found that religious differences were the only subject which his diet would 
discuss, and that after a long session they broke up without result. 

General Heuster soon after assumed the command of the Austrian armies, and 
issuing from the island of Schutz, crossed the Waag, and came up with Rakotski's 
forces near Trentsin. The latter were badly organised ; had no confidence in their 
officers, and the leaders were quarrelling with each other. When Heuster commen- 
ced the attack they were taken by surprise. The insurgent cavalry gave way before 
the Rascians. Rakotski galloped off to rally them and lead them back into action ; 
but on his way his horse missed his footing in leaping a ditch, fell, and Avas killed 
on the spot, throwing his rider to some distance. The prince was picked up 
senseless, and carried to the edge of a neighbouring wood, and when he recovered 
his consciousness he found that all was lost. Six thousand men were left dead 
on the field ; as many more were captured ; and the rest, except two brigades of 
cavalry, amounting in all to 4,000 men, were dispersed amongst the neighbouring 
woods and mountains. From this time Rakotski was never able to make head against 
the enemy. Many of his best oflnlcers deserted him ; those who remained were 
suspicious and desponding ; the whole of Lower Hungary had been reduced. He 
still, however, continued to maintain the contest with as much vigour as his 
diminished resources Avould allow, but was compelled, for the most part, to 
confine his operations to desultory skirmishing. 

He was at last induced to open up negotiations with John Palfi, who had 
embraced the imperial cause, and was placed in the chief command of the German 
troops. He accordingly wrote to him towards the close of the year 1709, repre- 
senting the advantages that would result from an honourable peace, and asking 
him to enter upon a negotiation for that purpose. After despatching the letter, 
he found that the czar was shortly to arrive in Poland, and that if he obtained an 
interview with him, he might possibly obtain some assurance of timely assistance, 
that even yet might retrieve his cause. He therefore, as soon as he had received 
a favourable answer from Palfi, appointed a place of meeting, and in the mean 
time started for Poland in all haste. He arrived on the 5th of December at 
Mungacz, and a few days afterwards received the disheartening intelligence, that 
Agria, which he had captured after great labour and loss, had surrendered to the 
enemy almost without resistance, owing to the intrigues of some refugee monks. 

T 2 



260 HISTORY OF IinXGARY. 

Pope Clement XI. had sent a circular to all the clergy, ordering them to recognise 
the emperor Joseph as the legitimate sovereign of Hungary, and abandon the 
confederation upon pain of excommunication. The clergy obeyed, and the 
Catholic officers and nobles giving way, suffered their fears or their piety to get 
the better of their patriotism, and followed the example of their spiritual in- 
structors. Upon hearing of these misfortunes, Rakotski stayed his progress, and 
went to Kichvarda to review all the cavalry which were still left him, where he 
found 12,000 men. He addressed them at some length, giving his reasons for 
opening up negotiations with Palfi, and warning them, that if he failed in bringing 
them to a favourable conclusion, they must then either succumb to the Austrian 
yoke, or die in defence of their liberties. He then proceeded to Yaga, where he 
met General Palfi. They lodged in the same house, and conducted their pro- 
ceedings with great show of cordiality. Palti assured him of the emperor's good 
will and esteem, and advised him to write to him, making his submission, in 
which case there was no doubt that his master would confirm the Hungarian 
people in ail their laws and liberties, grant a general amnesty to all who had been 
concerned in the late troubles : and as for Rakotski himself, there was no honour, 
or dignity, or favour that he might not look for, except the principality of Tran- 
sylvania. He besought him at the same time to reflect upon the perils of his 
position, warned him that if the Hungarian people now neglected to secure their 
rights by a timely surrender, they would be treated, when vanquished, as the 
Bohemians had been after the battle of Prague. 

Rakotski consented to write the letter, but declined entering into any treaty 
without the knowledge, advice, and consent of the states and the senate, or to 
accept any favour for himself personally. Towards the end of January, 1710, he 
convoked a meeting of all the senators who were witliin reach, at Schalank, about 
three leagues from Mungacs, and laid before them the state of affairs, informed 
them of the emperor's proposals, and offered to release them from their oath of 
fidelity if they chose to accept them. They unanimously refused, declared that 
they were boimd by their oaths not to lay down their arms until they had 
recovered their liberties, and that they would stand by him till death. Pie 
accordingly set out for Poland to seek for assistance, leaving the troops in 
command of Ivaroly. The latter no sooner found himself at the head of 
affairs, than he entered into a convention with Palti at Szathmar, which stipulated 
for a general amnesty, the restitution of confiscated property, the liberation of 
prisoners, and the exercise of the protestant religion — the confirmation of all the 
rights and privileges recognised by Joseph at his coronation. ^Yhen this was 
signed, then the insurgent army laid down their arras, and the war was at an end. 
Joseph offered to receive Rakotski as a reconciled enemy worthy of his esteem 
and friendship ; but the proud chief sternly spurned his proposals, and Avould have 
nothing to do with a treaty which had been entered into, not only without the 
consent of the states, but by the treacher}' of a subordinate. 

All hope of re-kindling the insurrection being now at an end, Rakotski dis- 



11AK0TSK£ AT PAllIS. 261 

missed the few followers who still adhered to him, and passed over from Dantzic 
to Hull, and sailed thence to France. He never again returned to Hungary. 
After taking up his abode in France, the government settled on him a pension of 
100,000 livres, and 40,000 for the support of his exiled adherents, and for some time 
he sought to drown the memory of his misfortunes by taking part in the gaieties 
and dissipations of the court, then in the height of its splendour. The implacable 
enmity, which for nearly two centuries had subsisted between France and Austria, 
made Paris the natural asylum of all against whom the indignation of the emperor 
Avas directed ; and so old are the absolutist tendencies of the Hapsburgs, that two 
centuries and a half ago numbers of unfortunate men were wandering as now over the 
earth houseless and penniless, the wronged and outraged victims of their tyranny. 
Paris was then what London is now, the city of refuge, to which all the van- 
quished fled. In the many memoirs and letters which chronicle the doings of the 
court of Louis Quatorze, we find frequent mention of names which would have 
sounded barbarous in the ears of the polite world of the day, if the monarch's 
smiles had not made them fashionable. The Hungarian and Transylvanian 
nobles were found at all the fetes, both at Paris and Versailles, by which the 
great king sought to hide the chasm of ruin and convulsion which daily was 
Avidening at his feet ; they were the admired of all admirers at the gorgeous 
reunions at Marly ; Monsieur invited them to accompany him Avhenever he went 
to hunt ; Conde entertained them with the splendid hospitality for which 
Chantilly, in his day, was famous; boots were worn a la Transylvaine ; and the 
unfortunate Zrinyi, who was beheaded at Neustadt, gave his name to a sort of 
coat which was long the delight of the Parisian elegants. 

St. Simon tells us that Rakotski lived in intimacy with all those of the nobility 
who were remarkable for wit, intellect, or bravery. Madame du Maintenon made 
him her special favourite ; and Madame Dunoyer writes, that no assemblage of 
the heau monde was considered complete or select in which he was not 
included. But this was a weary life ; — the pensioner of a court, and the idol of 
fashion, feted and caressed through the caprice of the moment, and liable to be 
abandoned at any time for some new star, Rakotski soon grew disgusted, and, 
in 1718, went to Spain, upon the representations of Alberoni, in the hope that he 
might, by his aid, be enabled to effect a new revolution in Hungary. Disap- 
pointed in this, he set out for Constantinople, and after a vain attempt to induce 
Turkey to continue the war which she was then carrying on against Austria, he 
spent the remainder of his life in complete tranquillity at the Castle of Rodosto, on 
the Sea of Marmora. He died in 1 735, at the age of sixty, thoroughly wearied of 
the Avorld and its pursuits. He has left behind him several works, most of them 
of a religious character — hymns, soliloquies, and meditations. The most valuable 
and important is his memoirs of his own life and actions, from his birth till the 
close of the war in Hungary. It is dedicated to Eternal Truth, and is 
written in a spirit of candour and impartiality, which has called forth the 
admiration of all parties. Besides being the best account extant of the events of 



262 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

the period, it is an able vindication of his own name and memory, and of the 
motives and acts of the patriots. Rakotski is one of the finest examples in 
history of -unconquerable devotion to a cause. He united the most winning 
simplicity with the astuteness of a statesman, and the indomitable;, energy of a 
soldier. An aristocrat by birth and rank, he was still a republican formed on the 
Roman mould, austere and truthful, a lover of equality and liberty ; but yet, not 
of a liberty which should pervade all ranks, noble as well as peasant. He was, 
undoubtedly, the champion of a democratic noblesse, but such a champion, 
that plebeian sympathies, respect, and adoration followed him in all his enter- 
prises. He is entitled to be placed amongst the foremost in the noble 
army of martyrs whom Hungary has furnished to the cause of freedom. None was 
more regardless of self, none ever showed more loyal devotion to duty, to 
patriotism, and to honour. In the closing year of his life, his intellect seems ,tp\ 
have given way under the influence of seclusion and disappointment, ana:\,to hav^-^ 
sunk into a state of monastic gloom. But even at the last he wagr a noMe] 
wreck.* i^s'V, ^ (/^ j^^ 

Joseph died in April, 1711, but three months after the pacification of HungatJ 



* He left two sons, Francis and George. They were educated at the Austrian court, 
but were not permitted to assume the family name. They both died yomig, and without 
issue. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

CHAEXES III. AND MAKIA THERESA. 
A.B. 1711—1777. 

Joseph was succeeded by the archduke Charles, his brother, who had disputed 
the crown of Spain with Philip V. The resources of the empire were now 
exhausted ; Charles himself was sick of war, and he therefore confirmed the 
treaty of Szathmar with a very good will, and restored to the Hungarians the 
crown and regalia which had been kept for a long time at Vienna. He declared 
his intention, notwithstanding the opposition of his Aiistrian counsellors, to rule 
in accordance with the laws ; and in spite of the opposition of the catholics, he 
granted complete toleration to the protestants. His reply to the remonstrances of 
those who saw danger in all opinions but their own, is worthy of record : 
" Although I approve of your zeal, and am ready to defend the church of Rome 
at the peril of my life, yet justice, policy, and my own interest, require that I 
should not leave my protestant subjects without a ray of consolation." * 

This policy of concession had the desired efiect. The Hungarian people sank 
into a state of political lassitude, after their long troubles, which nothing occurred 
to disturb until 1715. In that year the Turks broke through the treaty of Car- 
lowitz, declared war against Venice, and, having conquered the Morea, laid siege 
to Corfu. The Venetians instantly called the attention of Charles to the infraction 
of the treaty which his father had been mainly instrumental in bringing about, 
and sought his aid. The latter accordingly made preparations to commence 
hostilities. An offer of mediation was made to the Porte, but he rejected it with 
contempt ; and Prince Eugene was immediately despatched towards the scene of 
his early triumphs with a small, but well-disciplined army, which was flushed by 
successes in the Netherlands and on the Rhine. He was joined, on entering 
Hungary, by a large force of the insurrection ; and the cheerfulness and good will 
with which the Magyars volunteered their services, were the best evidences that 
could have been afforded of the wisdom of the policy which the emperor had 
pursued' towards them. The palatine, John Palfi, commanded the Hungarian 
cavalry, and a crowd of nobles, of the highest distinction, served under his orders. 
Eugene crossed the Danube near Petervaradin, and encamped, in sight of the 
Turkish army of 150,000 men, behind the very entrenchments which he had 

* Memoires de Lamberti, as quoted by Coxe, torn. vii. p. 561. 



264 • HISTOKY OF HUNGARY. 

thrown up twenty years before. He immediately commenced the attack in the 
new village of Carlowitz, in which the treaty had been signed, on the 5th of 
August, 1716, overthrew the mighty but undisciplined hosts of his enemies, killed 
30,000, including the grand vizier, and captured fifty standards and 250 pieces of 
heavy artillery, Temesvar, the last of the ancient possessions of the Turks in 
Hungary, was taken, and the fertile plain of the Banat was thus effectually 
secured. 

In the following year, Eugene again took the field, and in the month of June 
laid siege to Belgrade. The fortress was garrisoned by 30,000 men, and offered a 
vigorous resistance. After a blockade of two months, a large army under the 
command of the grand vizier, marched to its assistance, and encamped in the form 
of a semicircle, stretching from the Danube to the Save, and thus confining the 
imperial army to the marshy ground between the two rivers. Disease and famine 
now began to press heavily on the latter. The enemy threatened by the fire of 
their batteries to break down the bridge over the Save, which was their only 
means of a retreat ; and the hofirly ravages of sickness making the odds, in point 
of numbers, still more disheartening. There was no resource but to offer battle. 
The imperial army numbered 60,000 men, of whom only 40,000 could be brought 
into action, Avhile the Turks were 200,000 strong, and were encamped behind 
formidable entrenchments which bristled with artillery. To engage under 
such circumstances was a risk which nothing but extreme necessity could 
justify. The attack was made at midnight, under cover of thick darkness. 
The whole of the right wing advanced in silence, and surprised the guards of the 
enemy's works ; but the obscurity which had favoured their first onset, afterwards 
caused them to fall into confusion, and they were on the point of being over- 
Avhelmed, when the rising of the sun showed them their position, and gave them 
light to conquer. Eugene reorganised his forces, and, placing himself in the front 
rank, led them once more to the assaiilt, sword in hand. His example inspired 
the troops with such enthusiasm, that in their fury they bore down all opposition. 
They burst across the entrenchments in a solid body, seized upon the artillery, 
and turned them against the confused masses of the Turks, who, in a few minutes, 
fled in dismay, the hindmost killing those before them to facilitate their escape. 
The victory was complete ; Belgrade surrendered immediately afterwards, and a 
treaty, concluded at Passarovics, a village in Servia, in July, 1718, established a 
truce for twenty-five years, and secured to the house of Austria the Banat of 
Temesvar, the western part of Servia and Wallachia, and the town and territory 
of Belgrade, and part of Bosnia.^' From this period, the military frontiers have 
always remained under the control of the Viennese ministry of war, instead of the 
Hungarian palatine, a usurpation against which the diet has never ceased to 
protest. 

After the cessation of hostilities with the Turks, scarcely anything occurred in 

* Vie de Prince Eugene. 



THE PRAGMATFC SANCTION. 265 

Hungary to disturb the tranquillity which prevailed amongst all classes, but which 
was owing, perhaps, as much to exhaustion and the desire of repose, as to the 
existence of general satisfaction and contentment — until Charles summoned the 
diet to meet at Presburg, in 1 722, for the purpose of giving in its adherence to 
the Pragmatic Sanction, a measure which, at that time, began to occupy the 
attention of all Europe, and was destined to prove the cause of many calamities, 
not to the imperial family only, but to the empire at large. 

Leopold had formed a new family compact, to which both his sons, Joseph and 
Charles, gave their assent, by which the succession was entailed upon the 
daughters of Joseph in preference to the daughters of Charles, in case they both 
died without male issue. When Charles ascended the throne, he reversed the 
order of succession, and so altered the compact that his daughters should take 
precedence of those of his brother, with remainder to the queen of Portugal and 
the other daughters of Leopold. To this new arrangement he gave the name of 
the Pragmatic Sanction, and made it his first object to obtain for it the recognition, 
first of the states of his own dominions, and then of the various European powers. 
After its promulgation, three daughters Avere born to him ; Maria Theresa, Maria 
Anne, and Maria Amelia, and he fixed upon the eldest of these as the heiress of 
his vast dominions, and compelled his nieces to renounce all claims to the crown, 
founded upon any previous compact, as soon as they married the electors of 
Saxony and Bavaria. Though the choice of a female sovereign was in some 
measure repugnant to the spirit of the Hungarian constitution, the diet r^dily con- 
sented to proclaim her the successor to the throne. The foreign policy of Charles, 
during the whole of the subsequent portion of his reign, was altogether based 
upon the desire to obtain from the states of the empire, and the various foreign 
powers, a similar recognition of her claims ; and to this most of the diplomatic 
squabbles which arose during the ensuing twenty years owe their origin. To 
enter into them in detail would be foreign to the nature of the present work. In 
1736, the archduchess Maria Theresa was married to Francis Stephen, duke of 
Lorraine and Bar, grandson of Charles's sister Leonora. By this match, the 
two branches of the ancient house of Alsace, both of which claim descent from 
duke Etticho in the seventh century, and formed the two branches of Hapsburg 
and Lorraine, Avere reunited. Though these nuptials were the result of Charles's 
own desire, he took care, when ratifying them, to neglect no precaution necessary 
to secure to his male issue, in case he should ever have any, the succession to his 
OAvn dominions. In the marriage contract, Maria Theresa solemnly ratified the 
Pragmatic Sanction, and promised faithfully to make no pretensions to the crown, 
if at any time her father should have a son ; and the duke, her husband, promised 
on his part, never to put forward any personal claim to the succession whatever. 

Charles was induced by Russia, in 1736, to break through the peace of Passa- 
rovics, and enter into an offensive alliance against the Turks. A more unpropitious 
moment could not have been chosen for such an enterprise. Eugene, who for 
many years had been the animating spirit of the Austrian army, was dead, and 



366 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

there was apparently— and as the event proved in reality — not one worthy to 
succeed him. The fortresses were dismantled, or mouldering to decay ; the troops 
badly discij)lined and discontented. The result Avas such as might have been 
expected. In the campaigns of 1737 and 1738, the imperial generals were one by 
one defeated ; and, after a war displaying almost unexampled incapacity, dis- 
sension, and poltroonery, a peace equally disgraceful was concluded in November, 
1739, by which the emperor ceded the fortresses of Belgrade and Szabatch, as well 
as the whole of Servia, Austrian Wallachia, and a small district on the banks- of 
the Danube, retaining the Banat of Temesvar, but only on condition that he 
should demolish the fortifications of Mendia. During the whole of this, the 
Hungarian magnates looked on with indifference. They felt little interest in the 
quarrel, and were more anxious to preserve their property than to save the honour 
of the imperial arms. The inferior nobles had but small attachment to the Hapsburg 
family, and rather rejoiced than otherwise at witnessing its disasters ; while the 
peasantry, loaded with taxes, and treated by all parties with equal cruelty and 
oppression, cared not whether the Christian arms Avere triumphant or not ; 
because, as victory Avould make their lot no better, defeat could make it no Avorse. 
Charles did not long survive his disgrace. He died on the 20th of October, 1740, 
from an attack of gout, aggravated by imprudent exposure to the severity of the 
Aveather in hunting, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and the thirtieth of his 
reign. In him the male line of the house of Austria became extinct. 

He Avaf succeeded by his daughter Maria Theresa, knoAvn in Hungary under 
the name of Maria II., when but twenty-four years of age. She Avas one of the 
most remarkable sovereigns Avho have ever appeared in any age or in any 
country. There are fcAV graces Avhether of mind or body, Avhich can lend a charm 
to Avomanhood, that she did not possess. Her figure Avas tall, symmetrical, and 
commanding ; her features regular and beautiful ;' her countenance full of intel- 
ligence and animation ; her voice soft, musical, and displayed marvellous facility 
of adaptation to eirtreaty, command, or invective. To all these feminine charms 
she added strength of understanding such as all men do not possess, and of AA'hich 
any man might be proud ; and an energy of will sufficient to triumph over any 
obstacle or difficulty. No woman eA'er knew better hoAv to subordinate the 
charms of her person to the accomplishment of great deeds of policy ; and certainly 
none ever had greater need of all the skill and resources at her command. The 
state of the empire at her father's death cannot be better described than in the 
words of the English ambassador at his court, and from them some idea may be 
formed of the perils by Avhich the young queen Avas surrounded. " Everything 
in this court is running into the last confusion and ruin ; Avhere there are as 
visible signs of folly and madness as ever Avere inflicted on a people Avhom Heaven 
is determined to destroy no less by domestic diAdsions than by the more public 
calamities of repeated defeats, defencelessness, poverty, and plague." The 
treasury contained only 100,000 florins, and these Avere claimed by the empress 
doAvager ; the army, exclusive of troops in Italy and the Loav Countries, did not 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAK. 267 

amount to 30,000 effective men ; there was great scarcity of provisions, and 
consequently great discontent amongst the populace in Vienna, and reports were 
widely circulated that the Austrian empire was at an end, and that the elector of 
Bavaria was about to enter and take possession of the imperial dominions. 
Notwithstanding all the adhesions which Charles had received from the various 
European states, during his lifetime, to the Pragmatic Sanction, hardly one of 
them, except Hungary, now proved faithful to its promises. Claimants of the 
crown started up upon every side. Poland, Prussia, Russia, and Holland, certainly 
transmitted assurances of support; but when the time came for showing their 
sincerity, they were found wanting. France, upon whose decision most depended, 
answered by polite equivocations. 

Maria Theresa had hardly ascended the throne, when a rival appeared, in the 
person of the elector of Bavaria, who asserted that the will of Ferdinand I. 
bequeathed the kingdom of Bohemia and his Austrian dominions to his daughters 
and their descendants in case of failure of male issue ; and as this contingency 
had now occurred, he claimed the crown as the lineal descendant of Anne, 
Francis' eldest daiighter. To this Charles, in whose lifetime this claim had first 
been propounded, replied that the clause in Ferdinand's will devised his dominions 
to his daughters only on failure of legitimate issue, and did not exclude the female 
heirs of the male line. The elector, however, was not convinced, and refused to 
recognise the Pragmatic Sanction. He now prepared to dissolve it by force of 
arms. But the first attack on the ncAV sovereign came from a quarter in which it 
was least expected. 

Frederick IL, the king of Prussia, had been amongst the first to write to the 
queen on her accession, assuring her of his friendship and support ; but, either 
with the view of distinguishing himself or of extending his territory, he suddenly 
and unexpectedly entered Silesia on the 23rd of December, 1740, at the head of 
twenty battalions and thirty-six squadrons, all the while pretending that it was 
for the benefit of the empress that he should occupy a portion of her territories, in 
order to prevent them falling into the hands of any other power. After a series 
of fruitless negotiations for the purpose of inducing him to withdraw his forces, an 
Austrian army, under the command of marshal Newperg, was hastily collected 
and sent against him, but was totally defeated at Molowitz, on the 8th of April, 
1741. France now set intrigues on foot for the dismemberment of the Austrian 
empire. The elector of Bavaria commenced hostilities in the July following ; 
Russia looked coldly on ; fruitless attempts were made by the British minister to 
mediate between Frederick and the queen, and the throne of the latter seemed 
tottering to its fall. England alone remained faithful to her in her distress. The 
utmost enthusiasm on her behalf seemed to pervade all classes of the community, 
and the parliament voted, her £300,000 as a subsidy to aid her in defending her 
dominions against her enemies. 

France now openly commenced hostilities, and sent two powerful armies into 
Germany, extorted a declaration of neutrality from Hanover, and prepared to 



268 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 



co-operate with the elector of Bavaria. The electors of Cologne, Saxony, and the 
palatine, joined the confederacy ; Spain prepared to make a descent from Italy ; 
Frederick was about to join his forces with the allies ; and Russia was involved in 
a war with Sweden, which prevented her interfering on either side. 




In this extremity, Maria Theresa had but one resource to fall back upon, and 
that was an appeal to the Hungarians, and to this she resolved to betake herself. 
All the world looked forward to finding her deceived. It was thought a thing 



MARIA THERESA BEFORE THE DIET. 



269 



impossible that this turbulent noblesse, so jealous of control, so enamoured of 
liberty, so prone to fret against foreign domination, and so renowned for their 
indomitable spirit, would not now seize upon the most splendid opportunity that 




had ever presented itself of throwing off a yoke which had ever been hateful, and 
to break which they had already shed torrents of blood. But all the world was 



270 HISTORY OF HUNGAHY. 

wrong. The Hungarians seemed to have reserved their hatred for despotism only 
when the despot was prosperous and powerful. When misfortunes came, their 
animosity was disarmed, and their rage turned into pity. All the wrongs they 
had suffered from the Hapsburg family were forgotten Avhen its representative 
was a young and beautiful woman, with Europe in arms against her. Maria 
Theresa had too much feminine tact and penetration not to detect the existence of 
this chivalrous weakness in their character, and her confidence in her own 
judgment was sufficiently strong to save her from the doubts and misgivings 
which were daily uttered by the Austrian ministers. Grown gray in falsehood 
and intrigue, they coiild neither understand nor appreciate the high generosity of 
soul which could make a brave and proud people the protector of an unfortunate 
enemy. 

In May, 1741, deputies were sent to Vienna by the Hungarians to swear fidelity 
to the new sovereign^ and to invite her in the name of the nation to repair to 
Presburg and there receive the crown of St. Stephen. She immediately set out 
accompanied by her husband the archduke, and on her arrival her first act was a 
concession which had the effect of conciliating the whole nation. Charles VI., 
after the death of the palatine Count Palfi, in 1732, had refused to allow the 
election of a successor, and had appointed the grand duke lieutenant-general of 
the kingdom. The queen now gave directions for the immediate election of 
another palatine, and promised never to allow that office to remain vacant for more 
than a year. Count John Palfi was accordingly proclaimed by the unanimous voice 
of the diet, and count Joseph Esterhazy succeeded him in his office of judex 
curiae. The twenty-fifth of June was the day appointed for the coronation, and 
on that day Maria repaired to the church of St. Martin, Avhere she was solemnly 
consecrated and the crov^^n placed on her head by the archbishop of Strigonia aiid 
the palatine. She then proceeded on foot to the church of the Franciscans, and 
there conferred the honour of knighthood of the order of St. Stephen upon forty- 
four of the principal magistrates, and immediately afterwards rode in a magnificent 
carriage, surrounded by a vast concourse of people, to the great square, where a 
lofty throne had been prepared for her reception. Taking her seat, she placed 
her hands between those of the primate, and solemnly swore to preserve inviolate 
all the rights and immunities of the Hungarian people, — never to carry the crown 
beyond the frontiers of the kingdom, and never to confer upon foreigners any 
office, appointment, or dignity ; and in conclusion she pledged herself to observe 
the decree of Andrew the Second, Avith the exception of the thirty-first clause, 
which gave power to the nobles to take arms against the sovereign for the defence 
of the fundamental laws of the kingdom, without incurring the penalty of high 
treason. '^'' The whole ceremony was magnificent and well-ordered, and on 
descending from the throne she mounted on horseback, and rode slowly to the 
foot of the barrow, known as the Royal Mount, which overlooks the Danube, and 

* I have already given the form of the oath, as well an the excepted clause. 



ENTHUSIASM OF THE HUNGARIANS. 271 

then, armed Avith. a sabre of St. Stephen, she galloped, to the top, and according 
to the ancient custom defied the four corners of the globe with the drawn 
sword, and amidst the acclamations of the people. " The antiquated crown," 
said the English minister, who was present at the ceremony, " received new 
graces from her head, and the old tattered robe of St. Stephen became her as 
well as her own rich habit, if diamonds, pearls, and all sorts of |)recious stones 
can be called clothes. 

•Illam quicq^uid agit, quoque vestigia vertit, 
Componit furtim, subsequiturque decor.' " * 

A new charm was lent to her beauty by the air of delicacy which her recent 
confinement had given to her countenance, and the heat of the weather, the 
excitement of the ceremony, had flushed her cheeks with an animated glow, Avhile 
her beautiful hair flowed in long ringlets over her shoulders and bosom. Every 
movement and look filled the Magyars with enthusiasm, and drew fervid oaths of 
allegiance from the armed throng of cavaliers who witnessed the solemnity. So 
great a display of devotion filled the queen with delight ; and she would gladly 
have prolonged her stay in Presburg, if the news from Austria had not neces- 
sitated her return to the capital. 

The elector of Bavaria had seized upon Passau, as well as on the chateau of 
Oberhaus, and was soon after joined by the French army. The allied forces, after 
the capture of Lintz, advanced to St. Poelten, within eight leagues of Vienna. 
Terror reigned in the city. The grand duke closed the gates, and determined to 
resist to the death ; while the queen, accompanied by her infant son, set out once 
more for Presburg. On her arrival, she summoned the diet to the castle, and, as 
soon as the members were all assembled, she entered, clad in deep mourning, 
wearing the crown of St. Stephen on her head, and bearing her child in her arms. 
She traversed the great hall with slow and majestic step, and, having ascended the 
tribune, paused for a moment amidst awful silence, and then addressed the 
deputies in Latin. " The disastrous situation of my affairs," said she, " induces 
me to lay before you the recent hostile invasion of my hereditary dominions, the 
imminent danger in which this kingdom is nov/ placed, and a proposal for the 
consideration of a remedy. The very existence of the kingdom of Hungary, of 
my person, my children, and my crown, are novv^ at stake. Forsaken by all, my 
last hope is placed in the fidelity, arms, and tried valour of the Hungarians ; 
exhorting you, the states and orders, to deliberate without delay on the most 
effectual measures for the. preservation of my person, my children, and my crown, 
and to carry them into immediate execution. As far as I am. concerned, you may 
rely on my hearty co-operation in all things that may conduce to the national 
honour ctnd the pristine happiness of this ancient kingdom." f 

* Mr. Robinson's letter to Lord Harrington, June 28, 1748. 
f Coxe gives this address in the original Latin, which he extracted from the records of 
the diet. 



272 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 




MAGYARS OP JASZBEUENY. 



The youth, beauty, and distress of the queen, who was then a second time 
pregnant, produced an overwhelming impression on the deputies. For a moment 



THE seve:-." years' war. 273 

after she ceased speaking there was profound silence ; and then, as if by a sudden 
impulse, they all sprang from their seats, drew their sabres, flourished them in 
the air, and, returning them to their scabbards with a loud crash, exclaimed with 
one voice, " Vitam et sanguinem ; moriamur pro rege nostro Maria Theresa !" * 

Great as was Maria's confidence in the influence of her charms and manner, she 
had by no means expected so lively a demonstration of attachment, and as the 
shouts of the nobles rang through the chamber, overpowered with gratitude and 
joy, the dignified deportment which she had hitherto preserved quite forsook her, 
and she burst into teais. The deputies instantly hastened to the diet, and voted 
men and money sufficient for carrying on the war with vigour. The same 
scene was repeated a few days afterwards, when the duke of Lorraine took the 
oath as co-regent of the kingdom, the deputies repeating their exclamation, " We 
will die for the queen and her family ; we will die for Maria Theresa !" 

The elector of Bavaria, Charles Albert, who had assumed the command of the 
Gallo-Bavarian army, had abandoned his project of besieging Vienna, and had 
now made Bohemia the theatre of the war. The French had already entered 
Prague ; the grand duke had advanced against them at the head of 30,000 men, 
but the rigour of the weather had retarded him. On the 24th of January, 1742, 
Bohemia was entirely subdued, and Charles Albert was proclaimed emperor of 
Germany at Frankfort. 

These reverses but inflamed the ardour of the Hungarians. The worse the 
aspect of Maria Theresa's afl'airs the greater was their devotion. Three thousand 
nobles were already in arms in Silesia against the king of Prussia. The palatine 
raised the red standard, the signal for levying the insurrection, and instantly every 
Magyar rose in arms. Twelve thousand Croats, and various other tribes from 
the banks of the Save, Drave, and Teyss, answered to the appeal and poured their 
hordes' westward to the queen's assistance — Pandours, Sclavonians, Tolpachs, 
whose strange costume, curious arms, and ferocious valour, struck terror into 
the disciplined armies of France and Germany. Freedom was offered by the 
queen to all serfs who bore arms in her defence ; and the clergy, who even in 
the most critical posture of affairs seldom contributed anything to the neces- 
sities of the state beyond their prayers, now broke through their usual rule, and 
contributed a large subsidy towards the expenses of the war. The ladies of 
London sent a sum of £100,000 for the same object, which had, in many in- 
stances, been raised by the sale of their jewels, f as a tribute of their admiration; 
but Maria declined to accept it. The Bavarians were beaten by the Austrians 
soon after, and Lintz taken ; but to counterbalance this success, Count Saxe 
seized on Egra, and the duke of Lorraine was defeated at Czaslow by the king of 
Prussia, and prince Lobkovitz at Sahay by marshal de Broglio. 

The king of Prussia was, however, by this time tired of the war, and opened 

♦ Our lives and blood at your service ; we will die for our king Maria Theresa ! 
t Lacy. Vol. ii. p. 482. 



274 HISTORY OF HUNGARY, 

up negotiations, by which he agreed to desist from hostilities upon receiving 
possession of Upper and Lower Silesia, with the county of Glatz, except the towns 
of Troppau and Jagerndorf, and the high mountains beyond Oppau. A treaty to 
this effect was signed at Berlin, under the guarantee of the king of England, on 
the 28th of July, 1742, Augustus III., elector of Saxony, was included in it, and 
agreed to withdraw his troops from the French army and recognise the Pragmatic 
Sanction — a promise Avhich he fulfilled. Success was nov/ everywhere on the side 
of the Austrians. Charles of Lorraine joined his forces with those of prince 
Lobkovitz, and forced marshal de Broglio to retire from Frauenberg, destroyed his 
rearguard, and captured his baggage, while the Croats and other irregulars 
harassed him in his retreat. The garrison of Piseck refused to surrender to a 
detachment commanded by Nadasdi, and the Croats immediately swam across the 
river Avith their sabres in their mouths, and climbing each other's shoulders, 
scaled the walls and made the garrison prisoners of war.-'- Cardinal Fleury, the 
prime minister of Louis XV., who had been always averse to the war, now made 
overtures for peace, which, however, were rejected by Maria Theresa on any other 
conditions than that the French troops should lay down their arms. This 
proposal was, of course^ treated with scorn, and marshal Maillebois left France at 
the head of 40,000 men, to march to the rescue of his countrymen. But the way 
was 600 miles in length, and lay through a country full of defiles and overrun 
with the enemy's troops. The sufferings of the army shut up in Prague were 
dreadful, and marshal Belleisle resolved to effect his retreat from the city, and 
hasten to nieet Maillebois. He accordingly quitted it, on the 16th of December, 
at the head of 11,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry; and after a forced march of 
100 miles through a mountainous district covered with snow, in which his 
soldiers underwent almost incredible sufferings, he succeeded in reaching Egra. 
He had left behind a detachment to guard the sick and wounded, under the 
command of an officer named Chevert, who made so gallant a resistance that he 
forced prince Lobkovitz to suffer him to march out of the town with all the 
honours of war. Bohemia was now once more in the power of the Austrians ; 
and though Maria Theresa was chagrined by the escape of Belleisle's army, she 
celebrated the surrender of Prague by a magnifi.cent entertainment, at which a 
chariot-race took place, in imitation of the Greeks, in which ladies alone were per- 
mitted to contend, and amongst that number were the queen herself and her sister. 
Her coronation took place soon after. She proved herself an able administrator, 
and Avhile her husband was in the field she carried on negotiations with her allies 
with signal success. 

The campaign of 1 743 was opened by the entrance of prince Charles of Lorraine 
into Bavaria, where he attacked and put to flight the imperial army, a.nd took the 
general Minuzzi and his principal officers prisoners. He then adA'^anced against 
the French and compelled Broglio to fall back upon the Rhine, while Nadasdi, 

* Mr. Robinson's Letter to Lord Carteret. June 11, 1742. 



REVERSES OF THE QUEEN. 275 

the Hungarian general, harassed him in his retreat. The unfortunate emperor, 
seeing himself ahandoned on every side, lost all courage, renounced his pre- 
tensions to the Austrian succession, and yielded his dominions to the queen of 
Hungary, to he held by her until the close of the war. This treaty gave Maria 
a complete superiority, and the battle of Dettingen soon after removed all doubt 
as to the fortune of her arms. The king of England, George II,, had for a long 
time been in a state of uncertainty as to ^yhether he should take any active part 
in the quarrel. But at length relieved from his apprehensions for Holland by 
the march of Maillebois into Germany, he declared openly for Austria and came 
to her aid with an army of English and Hanoverians. His forces, however, 
got into a position at Dettingen from which there was no escape, except by 
cutting their way through the enemy. The nature of the ground, the choice of 
posts, and the place of battle, were all in favour of the French, but all these advan- 
tages were lost by the impatience of the duke de Grammoht, who issued from his 
lines, and thus caused the route of the whole army. The allies, however, derived 
no advantage from the victory beyond securing their own safety. 

Prince Charles of Lorraine now penetrated into Alsace, but was repulsed by 
marshal Coigny, and retired to Brisgau. This reverse did not, however, prevent 
the queen of Hungary from repairing to Munich, where her beauty, grace, and the 
remembrance of her recent trials, caused the Bavarians to forget that they were the 
subjects of Charles Albert, and to swear allegiance to her. Cardinal Fleury, who 
had so long ruled France with so much Avisdom and discretion, was now dead, and 
Louis XV. was his own master. Count Saxe had been created marshal of 
France, and four armies were despatched at once ; one to defend the passage of 
the Alps, the other to seize upon that of the Rhine, and the others to defend 
Flanders (1744). They had made some conquests in the latter province, when 
the news arrived that prince Charles had penetrated Alsace, had driven Coigny 
into his lines at Vecssemburg, and that 9,000 Hungarian hussars and Pandours 
had crossed in boats under the command of Nadasdi and Trenk, and had already 
appeared in sight of Luneville. Louis XV. immediately renounced his projects in 
Flanders, left marshal Saxe to maintain his conquests, and hastened with 80,000 
men to the relief of marshal Coigny, when he was seized at Metz with an illness 
which threatened his life. This event, however, did not suspend the operations of 
the war. Marshal Coigny entered Friburg in triumph ; and various other corps 
advanced to his aid from different quarters. A new turn was now given to 
affairs by the king of Prussia, Who again took up arms against Austria, at 
the same time justifying himself in a manifesto, which he caused to be distri- 
buted through Europe. He was jealous of M^ia Theresa, and dreaded her 
ambitious schemes with regard to' the other German states. His measures were 
taken with his usual secresy and promptitude. Almost immediately after the 
declaration of war, he appeared in Bohemia, and captured Prague, and made 
himself master of the whole country to the east of the Moldau. At the same 
time a corps of Bavarians and Hessians, uncfer Seckendorf, made an irruption into 

XT 2 



276 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

Bavaria, and reinstated the emperor in the possession of his capital and the greater 
part of his electorate, 

Maria Theresa was not daunted by these unexpected disasters. She once more 
made an appeal to the Hungarians, and received the same answer as before. The 
aged palatine, count Palfi, called upon the insurrection to rise, and forty-four 
thousand men instantly took the field, while thirty thousand held themselves in 
readiness as an army of reserve. " This amazing unanimity," says Tindal, * 
" amongst a people so divided amongst themselves as the Hungarians, especially 
in point of religion, could only be etfeqted by the address of Maria Theresa, who 
seemed to possess one part of the character of Elizabeth of England, that of 
making every man about her a hero," We have, in this respect, a true picture of 
her character in a letter she wrote to old Palfi, with a present of her own horse, 
richly caparisoned, with a gold-hilted sword, ornamented with diamonds, and a 
ring of considerable value. 

"Father Palfi, — 

" I send you this horse, worthy of being mounted by none but the most zealous of my 

faithful subjects ; receive at the same time a sword to defend me against my enemies ; and 

take this ring as a mark of my affection for you. 

Maria Theresa," 

The enthusiasm which was displayed in every part of the kingdom was as 
great as ever, and a large force was speedily sent to the relief of Bohemia. Prince 
Charles hastened back from Alsace. His march through Germany won the 
admiration of all the tacticians of the day ; and though he arrived too late, he was 
enabled to reconquer what he had been unable to preserve. He deceived Frederick 
by a series of able manosuvres, beguiled him into abandoning his position, and the 
latter did not perceive his mistake until the Austrians were masters of Prague, 
and he himself compelled to retreat before them from post to post in all but 
confusion (1745). 

Things were in this position, when the unfortunate emperor died, after wit- 
nessing the miscarriage of all his schemes, and the downfall of his most ambitious 
hopes. One great element in the quarrel was thus removed, and Maria Theresa 
found her party strengthened by the addition of Holland, who entered into an 
alliance against the French, with England and Austria. France now appeared in 
a position almost as precarious as Austria had been at the commencement of the 
war ; but the genius of marshal Saxe, and the courage of the king, restored her 
drooping fortunes, and the victory of Fontenoy, which was mainly due to the 
valour of the Irish brigade, was the first in a series of brilliant successes. This 
unexpected turn in aff'airs wks not, however, sufficient to make the elector of 
Bavaria, the son of the late emperor, forgetful of the lessons which his father's 
misfortunes had taught him. He refused to accept of the imperial crown which 
was offered him, renounced all claim to the states of Maria Theresa, and confined 

* Vol. xxi. p. 76, 



TREATY OF AIX LA CHAPELLE. 277 

his attention to the wise government of his own. Prince Charles received a 
severe repulse, on the 4th of June, at Friedberg, from the king of Prussia ; but 
this did not prevent Maria Theresa from procuring her husband's election to the 
imperial dignity, proving then, as on every other occasion during her lifetime, that 
his happiness and welfare were the great objects of her ambition. Her troops 
were again defeated, in September, at Prandnitz ; and after a second victory, 
Frederick entered Dresden with as much pomp and rejoicing as if it had been his 
o^vn capital. At length, however, through the mediation of George II. of 
England, a peace between Austria, Poland, andPrussia, was once more concluded, 
on the 25th of December. 

But in the meantime, the Infant Don Philip had entered Milan ; the Pretender 
had landed in Scotland in search of a crown, and, after filling the English 
government with alarm, had found only defeat, danger, and disappointment, and 
narrowly escaped a shameful death. The capture of Brussels, and several 
victories gained by the French, seemed to more than counterbalance the advan- 
tages derived from peace with Prussia. But fortune was more favourable in 
Italy — and the losses there sustained by France were as signal and as rapid as 
her victories in the north. The Austrians had already passed the Alps, and 
ravaged the frontiers of Provence, when they were compelled to retreat by marshal 
Belleisle. The Piedmontese repulsed the chevalier de Belleisle, the marshal's 
brother, with great courage, at Exelles, where the French commander him- 
self was killed, after giving a " display of the most desperate valour. Various 
successes attended the French arms in the Low Countries during the early part of 
1748 ; and at length, both parlies being heartily tired of the war, concluded a 
peace at Aix la Chapelle, in the autumn of that year (Oct. 8). 

By this treaty Maria Theresa Avas confirmed in the possession of all her father's 
dominions in the low countries ; the king of Sardinia, the republic of Genoa, and 
the duke of Modena, recovered all that they had lost in the course of the war ; 
the Infant Don Philip remained master of the duchies of Parma, Placenza, and 
Guastalla ; and, lastly, the Pragmatic Sanction was fully recognised in reference to 
all the hereditary dominions of the emperor Charles VI., except so much as Maria 
Theresa had ceded to Don Philip and the king of Prussia. To the latter was 
guaranteed the possession of the duchy of Silesia and the county of Glatz. 

Thus ended this famous war. It was begun through injustice and ambition, 
for the purpose of overwhelming Maria Theresa, and dismembering her empire ; 
but, to the confusion of its promoters, it had the effect of rendering her greater 
and more poAverful than ever, of consolidating her resources, and causing a tide of 
chivalric enthusiasm to rise in her defence. She had shown herself courageous in 
misfortune ; when success and prosperity came, she proved herself worthy of them, 
by prudence, moderation, and generosity. Even her enemies were compelled to pay 
homage to her virtues and graces. We have given but a rapid sketch of the events 
of the war, because it has, in reality, but little connexion with Hungarian history, 
except in so far as the Hungarian troops gave, on every battle-field, proofs of 



278 HISTORY OF HTINGAilY. 

indomitable valour and constancy ; and as the Hungarian people were the first to 
bid defiance, on the queen's behalf, to the trained armies of three of the most 
warlike kingdoms in Europe, led on by generals who had grown gray in the 
service. It was their good fortune also, that in none of these campaigns did a 
hostile force put foot in their territories, and they were thus enabled to pursue in 
peace the various operations of commerce and agriculture, which each generation, 
for centuries previously, had seen interrupted, either by internal disturbances, or 
by foreign invasion, and that they aided building up a power whose fostering 
protection gave them repose after their troubles, and introduced reforms and 
ameliorations, the effects of which have not yet ceased to shoAV themselves, even 
in our own tim.e. It is to these that we shall now direct attention. To attempt 
to follow the empress queen- through the various "battles, sieges, and fortunes" 
by which her career was agitated, and the various disturbances which her relations 
with neighbouring princes underwent, would be foreign to our present purpose, 
and, from the outline sketch in which our space would compel us to present them, 
would be necessarily uninteresting to the reader. '^■^ 

The great and leading idea of Maria Theresa's reign was, the establishment of 
one law and language throughout the whole of her vast empire. Some of the 
earlier kings of Hungary fancied that differences of race, language, and manners 
amongst their subjects were a source of national strength ; and in this they were 
undoubtedly wrong. But the Austrian monarchs too generally erred in the 
opposite direction. In their eagerness to reign over a united people, amongst 
whom the tongue, manners, and costume of the governing power should prevail, 
they overlooked the . difficulties which lay in the way of a " consummation 
so devoutly to be wished." The mingling of races, and the obliteration of dis- 
tinctions, is the slow work of time, of equal lavt's, and of acommtmity of interests. 
The arms of a conqueror may overcome, but a people's manners and mother- 
tongue, bid defiance to cannon and bayonet. A j)etty tribe, of obscure origin, 
and without a single ennobling memory, will cling to them with a tenacity which 
survives a dozen dynasties and a hundred revolutions. A great nation, loving its 
independence, whose history is a line of light, and whose traditions breathe of 
liberty and glory, may be conquered in a single campaign, but will take centuries 
for its subjugation. Those very distinctions which were the objects of Maria 
Theresa's aversion, were the pride and glory of the Hungarians. In attempting 
to remove them, she overrated her power. But, nevertheless, she was not wholly 
unsuccessful. In her day, as at a more recent period, it Avas the common opinion 
in Vienna, that the Hungarians were barbarians— prou^d, courageous, and indomit- 
able, certainly, but still barbavians-»"and, as a- matter of course, greatly in need 
of civilisation. The possibility of a humanising process, in which the introduction 
of the German language, manners, habits, and costume, did not form a part, never 

* Tlie foregoing narrative of the eveiit»9 in tlie earlier part of Maria Theresa's reign has, in 
great part, been condensed from Lacy's Histoire deHongrie, Toltaire's Siecle de Louis XIV., 
and Coxe's History of the Hoitse of Austria* 



REFORMS EFFP:CTED BY MARIA THERESA. 279 

occurred to tlie Aiistrians, and does not seem to have occurred to Maria Theresa ; 
but she found time enough, amidst the distractions of foreign war, to endeavour 
to carry out her project. She had too much tact, hov/ever, to offer violence to 
deeplj'^-rooted and honest preju.dices ; and instead of resorting to the measures of 
coercion which her predecessors had so often vainly employed with the same 
object, she sought to subdue the nobles by the fascination of her beauty and 
her conversation, just as she had subdued the diet, in the early part of her reign, 
by the romance of youth and beauty in distress. She was witty, intellectual, and 
dignified. Every look, and attitude, and tone, was full of power and of seduction-. 
Burke's description of her ill-fated daughter, might be applied to her with far 
greater truth and accuracy, " that never lighted on this orb, which she scarcely 
seemed to touch, a more delightful vision, * * * decorating and cheering the 
elevated sphere she moved in— -glittering like the morning star, full of life, and 
splendour, and joy ! " 

She knew how to gather illustrious men around her, and then to mould them, 
as it were, after her own will and pleasure ; to impress them, at a glance, 
with the consciousness that they stood in the presence of one mightier than they. 
She made her court the resort of all the gay, the brave, the accomplished of the 
day — 'a galaxy of splendour, of which she was the brightest star. The influence 
of a married woman who unites personal charms with mental power, is, perhaps, 
the strongest under which young men can fall ; her position, more especially if 
rank be one of the elements in it, renders passion hopeless or impossible, and 
makes her dominion a mixture of the intellectual and aesthetic solely. None 
knew this better than Maria Theresa, and none ever made better use of it in 
advancing her own schemes^ The youth of the Magyar noblesse were constantly 
invited to court, were flattered, amused, were inspired with all the spirituels 
tastes which the French philosophers were then difi'using through Europe. 
What wonder if, surrounded by so much that was brilliant, attractive, and withal 
so elevating, they forgot what it most behoved them to remember and love, the 
liberty and glory of their native land. They neglected their language, cast asidfe 
their splendid and becoming costume, and speedily became more German than the 
Grermans themselves, and at last sunk into a state of sybaritic carelessness, more 
fatal to all earnest purpose and high endeavour than open and avowed rehei- 
gadism. 

The queen, however^ managed very ably and judiciously to hide her insidiotis 
attacks upon the constitution by the introduction of a number of really useful 
reforms. She expelled the Jesuits from the kingdom ; she provided a better system 
of education for the iiiasses, abolished a number of barbarous usages which had 
been handed down from the early days of feudalistn, such as the use of the rack, 
and right of sanctuary in particular places, and at last so thoroughly connected the 
cause of enlightened reform with German institutions, that many of the Magyars 
began to get ashamed of their own. So thorough, in short, was the influence 
which this wonderful woman gained over them, that she never summoned 



280 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

the diet more than three times during her long reign of forty years, and habitually 
disregarded those constitutional forms which the natives had ever preserved with 
the most watchful jealousy. 

One of her measures, however, displayed talent so far-seeing and compre- 
hensive, and so wise a regard for the welfare of the very poor and helpless 
classes, that it must for ever redound to her honour, and more than compensated 
for any slight breaches of the forms of the constitution. This was the Urbarmm, 
or code of laws regulating the relations between landlord and tenant. 

The very existence of the Hungarian peasant was hardly recognised by the law 
until the year 1405. He was his master's serf, and this was all that the diet knew 
or cared about him, though he was at the same time not a mere slave. In the 
above year liberty was accorded him of leaving the place where he was born, in 
case he could obtain his lord's consent, and the latter was not allowed to refuse it 
without good and sufficient reason. In 1 548 the insurrection under Docza so 
exasperated the nobles, that all the peasants were reduced to absolute serfdom, 
but this law was repealed soon after, and at last, after various changes, the pea- 
sant's charter, which, for the first time, placed his rights on a firm and well-defined 
footing, came from the hand of Maria Theresa. 

In 1764, at the last of the three diets held during her reign, she caused strong 
representations to be made regarding the grievances which pressed upon the 
peasantry, but nothing was done. An insurrection soon after broke out, and great 
excesses were committed in various parts of the country before the troops could 
put down the disturbance. Maria instantly resolved to take advantage of the 
excitement to remove the abuses of Avhich she complained by her own arbitrary 
act, and though she thereby committed a breach of the constitution, she excused 
herself by the plea, that the end she aimed at more than justified the means. The 
result was the famous Urharhim, which remained in force till 1835. The leading 
provisions of this code have been thus enumerated by Mr. Paget : — 

" 1. The peasant was no longer attached to the soil, but could leave his farm 
and landlord whenever he thought fit, having first given due notice to the magis- 
trate, and paid his debts. 

"2. An entire peasant's fief consisted of a house and garden-ground, to the 
extent of an acre ; of an arable and pasture farm, varying in different countries, 
and according to the qualities of the soil, from sixteen to forty acres of arable, and 
from about six to twelve of meadow land. The landlord could only dispossess the 
peasant, nor that without due process of law, in case he had absolute need of the 
land to build his house upon, or in case of incapacity or refusal on the part of the 
peasant to fulfil his duties, or of condemnation for heinous offence ; nor could the 
landlord exchange the fief without giving another equally large and good. 

" 4. Where there were vineyards, the peasant might retail wines from Michael- 
mas-Jay to St. George's ; where there were none, to Christmas only. 

The peasant might cut wood for building and firing, and gather rushes on his 
landlord's property, without payment. Socmill, or the obligation to grind at the 



THE URBARIUM. 



281 




^^»^'^ 



HUNGARIAN IN THE NATIONAL COSTUME. 



282 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

landlord's mill, was forbidden, as likewise all other demands except those specified 
by this law. 

The peasant held this property — for such it really was — subject to the follow- 
ing conditions : — 

1 . The holder of an entire fief was bound to labour for his landlord, in every 
year, one hundred and four days, or, if he brought a team of oxen or horses, fifty- 
two, from sunrise till sunset. This time it was required should be taken in one 
or two days weekly, as it might be, except during the harvest, when it might be 
doubled for a certain time, though not increased in the gross amount; and, 
moreover, one quarter of the labour was to be reckoned in the three winter 
months. 

2. In like manner the holder of half a fief performed half the quantity of 
service ; and the holder of a quarter only a fourth : a mere householder rendered 
only eighteen days hard labour. 

3. Every four holders of entire fiefs were obliged, once yearly, to furnish a man 
•and horse for a two days' journey, the landlord paying the necessary, expenses. * 

4. Each peasant, for liberty of cutting wood, was obliged to cut and convey to 
his landlord's dwelling one small cartload of firewood. 

5. When the country Avas infested by beasts of prey (bears, boars, wolves, and 
foxes), the peasant was to assist in hunting three days, if required, in the course 
of the year. 

6. For his house he paid two shillings yearly. 

7. Every fief was bound to pay two hens, two capons, nineteen eggs, arid one 
pound of butter, or eighteen pence ; and every thirty fiefs together one calf, or 
three shillings in money. 

8. Should the lord or lady marry, or enter any religious order, the peasant waiS 
obliged to make a present similar to the contribution in the former clause ; and 
the same if the lord was taken in battle and forced to ransom himself. 

9. For permission to distil, the peasant paid four shillings yearly for each 
still. 

10. Of all the productions of the soil, one-ninth belonged to the landlord, 
except the produce of the second harvest and the fruits of the garden. Of cattle, 
lambs, and kids, a ninth was also the lord's due." 

In order to enforce prompt obedience to these laws, the seigneur was em- 
powered to inflict summary punishment upon refractory peasants, by means of his 
officers, to the amount of twenty-five blows ; for which, however, he was amenable 
to the laws, if it were inflicted without due cause. 

The Sedes Bommalis, or manor court, in which the lord or his representatives 
appointed the judges, was declared the legal tribunal for the settlement of diff"e- 
rences between the peasant and his lord, as well as those that might arise among 
the peasants themselves. There was a right of appeal to the county court, and 

* When there was no post, this was the means used for sending letters. 



DEATH OF THE QUEEN. 



283 



from that to the Statthalterei, in Buda. In civil matters, the jurisdiction extended 
to all cases under the value of six pounds ; in criminal, to the infliction of twenty- 
five blows. 

It will be seen at a glance how many acts of oppression and injustice might 
still be committed by the lord without infringing any of the above regulations, 
and how hard, toilsome, and hopeless the peasant's life would still remain even 
under their protection. But still it was a long step in advance, and fully entitled 
Maria Theresa to the appellation which the grateful serfs conferred on her — of 
Mother of her Country. She rightly concluded how much more advantageous it 
was to have good husbandmen in the fields than, good soldiers in the army ; and 
this victory of hers, achieved over prejudice and oppression, in favour of a 
wronged and wretched caste, will shed lustre on her name when the exploits of 
her armies and the triumphs of her diplomacy have descended to the same 
tomb with her beauty, her wit, and her heroism. We cannot dismiss her 
without referring to an act by which the close of her reign was tarnished. By 
the Seven Years' War which she carried on with Frederick the Great of Prussia, 
she was compelled to cede him the whole of Silesia, and we may fairly presume 
that this loss had something to do with the share she took in the partition of 
Poland, the most iniquitous outrage ever perpetrated by civilized sovereigns. That 
unfortunate country was in a state of complete anarchy under the rule of the 
imbecile Stanislaus Poniatowski, and in 1771 the Austrian minister Kaunitz, 
forgetful of the extremities to which his own mistress had been reduced thirty 
years previously, by a similar scheme on the part of France and Bavaria, proposed 
to the empress of Russia and the king of Prussia to divide it between them. The 
proposal was eagerly accepted, and Austria was recompensed for the loss of Silesia 
by the annexation of Gallicia and Lodomeria. 

Maria Theresa died in 1780. She had six sons and ten daughters, of whom 
nine survived her. Amongst the daughters was the unfortunate Marie Antoinette^ 
afterwards queen of France. 



CHAPTER XX. 

TROUBLES IN THE REIGN OF JOSEPH II. AND LEOPOLD II. AND PKANCIS I. 

A.D. 1780—1815. 

Maria Theresa was succeeded by her son, Joseph the Second of that name. 
He was then in the forty-first year of his age ; and the highest expectations 
were formed regarding his skill and ability in the science of government. He 
had everything in his favour. Though his early training had been confided to 
two Hungarians, whose prejudiced dulness rendered them anything but well 
adapted for their ofiice, his great strength of character and natural spirit of 
inquiry triumphed over the disadvantages of education, and made him one of the 
most innovating and enterprising sovereigns that had ever sat upon the Austrian 
throne. In the twenty-fourth year of his age he was called to the imperial 
crown, but his mother's love of power and long reign prevented him taking any 
part in the administration of public affairs during his earlier years. He was 
thus enabled to devote his whole time to the gratification of his ruling passion — 
the desire of knowledge. He travelled through the length and breadth of the 
imperial dominions as a private individual, without pomp or attendance, minutely 
examining all public institutions and establishments, civil and military ; arts 
manufactures, commerce, and education — all came in for a due share of his study 
and observation. The condition of the people also did not escape his notice. He 
entered the huts of the poorest, listened to their stories, and formed plans for the 
amelioration of their lot, which he afterwards endeavoured to carry out, and which 
were at least distinguished by honesty of purpose. The consequence of these 
researches was, that he became speculative in the highest degree, and was 
afflicted with that contempt for expediency and practicability which speculative- 
ness generally brings with it. When he succeeded lo the throne, he found 
himself in possession of ample materials for carrying his theories into execution. 
His dominions comprised an area of 180,000 square miles, and contained 
24,000,000 of inhabitants, who spoke ten different languages, and were composed 
of several diff'erent nations, with diff"erent laws, religion, manners and customs, 
and holding little communication of any sort with each other. Some were governed 
by a written code ; others by local customs, of which each district had its own : 
and others by the feudal system, which in most parts flourished in full vigour. 
The clergy and nobles had all the real power in their hands, and looked upon the 
citizens with all the dislike and contempt which idleness usually feels towards 
industry, and the aristocracy of birth and rank towards the more substantial, more 



ENCROACHMENTS UPON HUNGARIAN LIBERTY. 285 

useful, but certainly less romantic aristocracy of wealth and enterprise. As for 
the peasants, they were counted among the beasts of the field, born to minister to 
the luxury and caprice of the noble, and were, except in the Netherlands, Tyrol, 
.and Austria Proper, in a state of complete vassalage. 

Joseph no sooner fond himself in possession of the reins of power, than he 
formed the stupendous plan of abolishing all these differences and distinctions, 
and of moulding this vast, disjointed, and heterogeneous mass into one compact 
and united body, governed by one law, speaking the same language, and living 
under the same institutions. He accordingly forthwith abolished all the separate 
jurisdictions in the various provinces, such as the assemblies composed of the 
nobles and clergy, and a few deputies from the loyal and free towns which shared 
with the sovereign the right of administering justice and imposing taxes. He 
divided the whole of the monarchy into thirteen governments, each subdivided into 
a number of districts or circles. Each of the latter was presided over by a magis- 
trate, who superintended the execution of the laws, and protected the peasantry 
from the injustice of the nobility. The capital of each government contained a 
court, one department of which was set apart for the nobility, and the other for 
the lower classes, and from this there were three degrees of appeal, the final 
resort being to Vienna. A subordinate officer had the care of the police, but he 
was under military control, and every department was in absolute and entire 
subjection to the supreme council or chancery at Vienna; or, in other words, to 
the arbitrary will of the monarch. 

Hungary, of course, was placed under the new regulations, having previously 
suffered from many violent and arbitrary acts. Upon his mother's death Joseph 
acknowledged the rights and privileges of the states in a circular letter, but he 
nevertheless refused to go through the ceremony of coronation, because he was 
determined to destroy them, and consequently would not confirm them by an oath. 
Nay, he went farther than this : he wantonly carried off the crown, sceptre, and 
other regalia, from Presburg, and deposited them at Vienna, thus offering one of 
the greatest insults in his power to the national prejudices, though he well knew 
the superstitious veneration paid to these relics by the Magyars, and the importance 
they attached to their presence within the kingdom. He also abolished the use of 
the Latin and Hungarian languages, and permitted the German only to be used in 
all public offices. He destroyed the whole municipal system of the country, upon 
which the natives, with justice, looked as the great safeguard of their liberties. 
County meetings were forbidden, as also the election of county officers ; the local 
courts were abolished, and the forms, usages, and times of assembling were so 
entirely different in those that were established to supply their place, that the 
whole judicial system was thrown into a state of confusion through which not even 
the practitioners could find their way, and the proscription of the two languages, 
in Avhich all the charters and other official documents were framed, naturally 
inspired the natives with the fear that this was but the prelude to the total aboli- 
tion of their simplest privileges. With these sweeping innovations were mingled 



286 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

some measures of salutary reform, which, had the effect of inducing the Hunga- 
rians to bear them for awhile patiently. The convents and monasteries were dis- 
solved, and their vast endowments bestowed upon the schools and colleges ; com- 
plete toleration was granted to the protestants ; a great number of sinecures was 
abolished ; taxation was more equally distributed, and several important privileges 
were conferred upon the peasantry. The removal of the crown of St. Stephen, 
however, raised the whole nation into a ferment, and firm rem.onstrances, the tone 
and language of which bordered closely on threats, were poured into Vienna. 
Joseph, nothing daunted, ordered that all resistance to his commands should be 
put down by force ; and strong hints were given, that if the nobility persevered in 
their opposition, a servile Avar would be excited, which would overwhelm them 
and their nationality together. But all was in vain. A diet was loudly called 
for, and both subsidies and levies were refused. Soldiers were sent to raise both 
one and the other by force. The crisis was fast approaching, when Joseph sur- 
rendered. He had been unsuccessful in a war against the Turks, was encompassed 
by foreign enemies, harassed by domestic contentions with his own brother, and 
had seen his best concerted schemes frustrated. He yielded to the demands of 
the Hungarian nobility, restored their constitution, language, and national dress, 
sent back the regalia, and promised to have himself crowned in due form speedily. 
He did not live to fulfil it. He died on the 20th of February, 1790, in the forty- 
ninth year of his age, and the tenth of his reign. The epitaph which he himself 
ordered to be inscribed upon his tomb is an excellent commentary upon his 
career : — " Here lies Joseph, a sovereign, who with the best intentions, never 
carried a single project into execution." It was well for Hungary that he saw 
his mistake with regard to her before his decease, and well for his own memory, 
that, as soon as he saw it he hastened to rectify it. 

The crown was received in Hungary with transports of joy. Triumphal arches 
were erected on the roads along which it had to pass, and before it reached Buda 
it was attended by an immense crowd. On the night of its arrival, it was- placed 
in the cathedral, and guarded by two magistrates with drawn sabres ; every house 
was illuminated, and the streets resounded with acclamations. Never was the 
impolicy of irritating a people whom it was so easy to appease, so- clearly mani- 
fested, Joseph's death, however, and the restoration of the crown and constitu- 
tion, did not completely put an end to the troubles. He had never been, and 
accordingly was not, in the eye of the Hungarian law, a legitimate sovereign. 
The rule of succession was, therefore, said to be abrogated, and the right of 
election to be revived, and the claims of Leopold, Joseph's brother, to the throne 
were denied by a large and powerful party. They considered the concessions 
which had been made by the late emperor previous to his death to have been the 
result of fear rather than of a desire to do justice. The recent astounding events 
in France also were not Avithout their influence in increasing the excitement. At 
the cou.nty assemblies dissatisfaction, not only Avith Joseph's acts, but Avith Leo- 
pold's promises, was openly expressed, and a disposition v^as clearly evinced not 



OPPOSITION OF THE DIET. 287 

only to adopt the words but to folloAV the example of the French revolutionary 
party. An address sent to the emperor from the people of Pesth may furnish a 
good idea of the state of the public mind at that period : — " The fame, august 
sovereign, which has preceded you, has declared you a just and generous prince. 
It says that you forget not that you are a man ; that you are sensible the king 
was made for the people, and not the people for the king. The violent commo- 
tions which have agitated our country after so many acts of injustice are thereby 
somewhat allayed. Scarcely, therefore, could we trust our eyes, when in your 
first rescript to us of the fourteenth instant, we found not those securities for the 
safety of our constitution, which our hereditary rights and the inflexible patience 
of the people under the lawless reign of the late emperor demanded ; securities 
which your majesty has fully granted to "the Belgians, an act which will remain as 
a proof of your sentiments throughout all ages. 

" From the rights of nations and of man, and from that social compact whence 
states arose, it is incontestible that the sovereignty originates from the people. 
This axiom our parent Nature has impressed on. the hearts of all; it is one of 
those which a just prince (and such, we trust, your majesty ever will be) cannot 
dispute ; it is one of those inalienable imprescriptible rights which the people 
cannot forfeit by neglect or disuse. Our constitution places the sovereignty 
jointly in the king and the people, in such manner that the remedies necessary to 
be applied, according to the ends of social life, for the security of persons and 
property, are in the power of the people. We are sure, therefore, that at the 
meeting of the ensuing diet, your majesty will not confine yourself to the objects 
mentioned in your rescript ; but will also restore our freedom to us in like manner 
as to the Belgians, who have conquered theirs with the sv/ord. It would be an 
example big with danger to teach the world that a people can only protect or 
regain their liberties by the sword, and not by obedience." 

To this Leopold returned the only answer that was possible, by summoning a 
general diet for his coronation, an. event which had not taken place for fifty 
years. It was very fully attended by the nobility, who flocked to the meeting 
full of confidence, and prepared a new inaugural diplonia or declaration, which 
revived all the ancient restrictions which, in former days, had been imposed upon 
the Hungarian kings. Leopold now found himself in a very critical position. 
He must either have surrendered every vestige of power, or have it wrested from 
him, surrounded as he was by enemies, two of whom, Turkey and Prussia, were 
known to be carrying on intrigues with the malcontents. He, therefore, as a last 
resource, called in the aid of division, an ally which had many a time previously 
done good service for his house ; and, by stirring up the Sclavonic inhabitants of 
Hungary against the Magyars, and flattering them with the hope of a separate 
nationality, he raised a powerful party to support him against the diet. The 
Magyars, however, nothing daunted, sent deputies to the convention at Reichen- 
bach, which met for the purpose af concluding a peace with Turkey and Prussia, 
and claimed the right to which we have often alluded, and which was repeatedly 



288 HISTORY OF HUNGAKY. 

secured to them — of taking part in the negotiations on behalf of the Hungarian 
nation with the same power and authority as the royal plenipotentiaries. This, 
and many other demands which sought to revive privileges which had long ago 
fallen into disuse, were embodied in the inaugural declaration which Leopold was 
called upon to sign. He peremptorily refused to do so after a long discussion, 
announced his fixed intention of being crowned on no other terms than those 
accepted by his grandfather Charles and his mother Maria Theresa, and the diet at 
last gave way. Presburg was, therefore, appointed the place for the ceremonial. 
The crown and regalia were sent thither, and, on the 10th of November, 1790, the 
king made his appearance, accompanied by his five sons. His presence, and his 
revival of the old forms of the constitution seemed to have pacified his enemies, 
and allayed their discontents. A conciliatory spirit now pervaded the whole 
assembly. Leopold was received with acclamation ; his fourth son, the unfor- 
tunate Alexander, was selected from amongst the candidates for the oifice of 
palatine, vacant by the death of Esterhazy, the first member of the house of 
Hapsburg that had ever attained to that dignity. The emperor then thanked 
them for the warmth of their reception, being so much more cordial than he 
had ventured to expect, and declared his intention to govern according to the 
laws ; and with great earnestness exhorted his son to fulfil his duty to the nation 
at all hazards, and without regard to his feelings. 

On the 15th of the month, Leopold was solemnly crowned by the new palatine, 
after having signed a diploma containing the same stipulations as that of 
Maria Theresa, and he covered himself with popularity by rising up after the 
usual public dinner of which every new sovereign partook, and announcing his 
willingness to consent to a law binding every future king to be crowned within 
six months after his accession to the throne. As this would preclude the 
possibility of such infringements upon their liberties as had distinguished the 
reign of Joseph, the declaration was received with shouts of rejoicing ; and, in 
the heat of its enthusiasm, the diet raised the usual honorarium from 100,000 
florins to 225,000. Leopold expressed his thanks in an eloquent speech, in 
which he declared, that the sincerest wish of his heart was to rule them by love, 
and not by fear. 

The diet then proceeded to business, under the presidency of their new palatine; 
and, after securing and confirming all Leopold's concessions, such as the right 
of religious toleration, and the priority of the Magyar language in oiRcial trans- 
actions, they appointed a standing committee, or deputation, of the whole nation, 
to inquire into the gravamina, or grievances of Hungary, Avith power to review 
the whole circumstances of the country, and propose a general, efficient, and 
radical reform. How its labours ended we shall see hereafter. For the present 
they were suspended by the death of Leopold, in March, 1792, after a short reign 
of two years. 

Leopold was succeeded by his eldest son Francis, then in the twenty-fifth year 
of his ac^e. No monarch of the house of Austria ever ascended the throne 



JACOBINISM IN HUNGARY. 289 

with so many dangers threatening him on every side. The crisis of the 
French revolution was fast approaching, and the terrible propagandist zeal of 
the jacobins had spread their doctrines all over Europe, and roused all those 
bad passions, and delusive hopes by which France was lured on to her doom. 
Louis XVI. was now in close confinement, and his revolted subjects were delibe- 
rating upon his fate. The crowned heads of Europe took the alarm. An agree- 
ment had already been entered into at Pilnitz between the king of Prussia and 
Leopold, in which the two sovereigns bound themselves to march to the aid of the 
French monarch, and restore him, if not to the possession of absolute power, at least 
to the possession of his liberty. But this impolitic interference, as all the world 
now knows, and as any wise man might then have predicted, only aggravated the 
miseries and dangers of his situation. The leaders of the French people had 
gone too far to think of receding. Their only hope and only safety lay in advan- 
cing, and their objects were never so effectually served as by this threat of foreign 
intervention. The allied monarchs little knew the terrible force that slumbers in 
the heart of a great nation, or they would never have threatened to force it to undo 
its own acts and to eat its words. The revolution rushed on like a flood, and in 
Hungary it found the seed already sown, and needing but moisture to spring up 
and bear fruit. The events in Paris Avere watched at Buda with the keenest 
interest. Each act in the great drama, on which the eyes of all Europe were fixed,- 
was there discussed with deep earnestness. The debates in the national assembly 
were eagerly read, and several of the young men entered into correspondence 
with the chiefs of the Mountain.* A party was soon formed, having for its 
object the overthrow of the monarchical form of government, headed by Joseph 
Martinovics, at one time a Franciscan friar, of Rascian origin, subtle, versatile, 
but possessing little principle. He was the prime organizer of the move- 
ment, and commenced his work by distributing revolutionary tracts upon a vast 
scale — one of the most remarkable of which was the " Citizen's Catechism." 
They produced their effect, and great numbers of the youth soon joined him in 
carrying on his enterprise. They were at length, however, betrayed by a servant, 
who overheard their deliberations, and the principal conspirators were arrested 
and condemned, some to death, others to imprisonment for life. They met their 
fate, as might have been expected, with a courage and fortitude that made them 
martyrs in the eyes of the people. In the same year, 1794, the palatine, 
the archduke Alexander, was killed by the explosion of some fireworks at a fete 
in Vienna— some said designedly, in consequence of his being suspected of 
aspiring to the crown of Hungary. 

In the meantime, the Austrian army had been suffering terrible reverses from 
the French. Army after army was overwhelmed or destroyed by the valour of 
the republican soldiers and the skill of their generals, and Francis was forced to 
convoke a diet for the raising of new subsidies and levies. The states voted both 

* J acobiiioruni Hungaricorum Historia ; by Antony Szirmay, 



290 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

the one and the other, but strongly protested against the continuance of the war, 
which wa§ in reality at this time a war of aggression, begun for the express purpose 
of intimidating the French nation, and interfering in the management of its 
internal affairs. When Napoleon, however, had ascended the imperial throne, 
and had shown clearly that he was animated by a thirst for imiversal dominion, 
there was an instant reaction in the public opinion of the Hungarians against 
France. Austria had been already invaded. Hungary was threatened, and the 
diet of 1807 displayed all its ancient horror of foreign occupation. They knew by 
bitter experience, that the presence of an enemy's troops within its territory is 
not merely the greatest disaster, but the foulest dishonour that can befal a nation. 
Austria herself was at this time reduced to the lowest ebb. Her bravest soldiers had 
been slain or dispersed, and her princes were fugitives from the hereditary 
dominions of their house. Desperate as had been her situation at Maria Theresa's 
accession to the throne, it was now still more deplorable. She had still the same 
resource, but her opponents were very different. The insiirrection rose Avith 
great enthusiasm, and fought bravely in the ranks of her army. When 
commencing the campaign of 1808, Napoleon resolved to deprive Austria of this 
valuable ally by working on the patriotic prejudices of the Hungarians ; and 
consequently, after the capture of Vienna, he issued the following proclamation, 
which happily the Magyars estimated at its real value. Napoleon's gross 
duplicity, his innate hatred to liberty, were now becoming too apparent to be 
glossed over by the brilliancy of his bulletins. He had in like manner promised 
independence to the Poles, and, having roused their enthusiasm, used them for his 
own aggrandizement, and then left them to their fate : — 

•' Hungarians ! 

" The emperor of Austria, in violation of our treaties, and ungrateful for my generosity 
towards him, after three consecutive wars, and, above all, after that of 1805, has again attacked 
my armies. I have repelled this rmjustifiahle aggression, &c., &c. Hungarians ! the moment 
for recovering your independence has arrived. I offer yoti peace, the preservation of your 
territory, of your liberty, and of your constitution. Assemble in your national diet upon 
the plains of Eakos, according to the custom of your ancestors, and make known to me your 
determination. "Napoleon." 

The proclamation was treated with the contempt it deserved. They had seen 
enough of French sympathy for the oppressed to make them dread it. Louis XIV. 
had encouraged Rakotski to take up arms at the end of the seventeenth century, 
and had promised to support him to the uttermost, but abandoned him long before 
the conflict was over. And now another French monarch, more false, more 
ambitious, and more powerful than Louis, was repeating the same offers under the 
same circumstances. It speaks no less strongly for Magyar prudence, than for 
Magyar pride and generosity, that they spurned the invader, and remained faithful 
to the cause of Francis I. Napoleon was not slow in taking vengeance upon 
them for their refusal. When Vienna was taken, Francis fled to Hungary, as his 
grandmother had done sixty years before under similar circumstances, and threw 
himself for protection on the Magyars, The insurrection was instantly levied ; 



BATTLE OF KAAB. 



291 



every noble in the kingdom flew to arms ; but their chivalrous valour could do 
little against the trained legions of France, The fiery squadrons of cavalry, Avhich 
had been so terrible in the old wars against the Turks, were broken and dispersed 




by the veteran troops who had already vanquished the flower of the Grerman 
and Russian infantry. Presburg Avas bombarded and fell; the archduke John 

X 2 



292 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

was totally defeated on the plains of Raab by Eugene Beauharnois ; and the 
countries bordering on the Adriatic were annexed to the French empire. 

Francis was now reduced to the last extremity. He lay at the conqueror's 
mercy, and was compelled to drink the cup of humiliation to the dregs, by 
bestowing on him the hand of the archduchess Maria Louisa in marriage. Still 
he did not cease to hope, and with all that desperate tenacity for which his house 
has ever been distinguished, he continued to plot and labour for deliverance from 
his vassalage without ceasing. A diet was summoned in 1812, at which the 
palatine, the archduke Joseph, stated, in his opening address, " that the subject 
which should now be discussed was, not merely the safety of their own country, 
but the existence of the whole monarchy." Voluntary subsidies were accordingly 
voted once more ; but an attempt to restore the national credit by the creation of 
new imposts was indignantly rejected. The reduction of bank notes to a fifth of 
the original value, a short time after this, justified the mistrust with which the 
diet looked upon all the financial measures of the Viennese cabinet. The retreat 
from Russia broke the power of Napoleon ; the battle of Leipsic and the campaign 
of 1814, in which Hungary bore a distinguished part, and, last of all, the 
crowning disaster at Waterloo, completed his downfal, and placed the Haps- 
burgs once more in security upon their throne. Hungary had for twenty years 
taken no thought of her internal condition in her anxiety to save her rulers. 
We shall now see what return she received for her devotion. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

CONFLICTS BETWEEN THE DIET AND THE GOVERNMENT.— -PROGKESS OF 

EEFORM. 

1815—1848. 

The battle of Waterloo, in 1815, put an end to the terrible struggle by Avhich. 
every country in Europe had for twenty years been agitated. The sovereigns of 
the continent now breathed freely for the first time in twenty-five years ; and 
their first act was to enter into a leagife against their deliverers, to revoke all their 
concessions, and break all their promises, and to take every means in their power 
to restore the principle of legitimacy to the position it had occupied before the 
French Revolution. There never was a greater proof of human folly. Principles 
that rest on bases far sounder and more enduring than legitimacy could boast, could 
not have assumed their old place in men's hearts after such a shock as it had 
received. 

The most audacious of all those Avho joined in framing the Holy Alliance was 
the emperor of Austria. The Hungarians reminded him, in 1815, of his repeated 
jDromises to redress their grievances, while they were voting him men and money 
to defend his capital against the assaults of Napoleon. He could not deny the 
promises, but he emphatically declined to fulfil them. They asked him to 
convoke the diet, but he had never had any great liking for the diet, and now had 
less than ever ; for it was one of these institutions in which the despots saw most 
danger to themselves. He, therefore, determined to dispense with it for the 
future. In 1822, the movements of the Carbonari in Italy gave the cabinet of 
Vienna great uneasiness. New levies of troops became necessary, and, as a 
matter of course, new subsidies to clothe, feed, and pay them. As it was resolved 
not to assemble the diet, the only resource left was, of course, to raise the necessary 
supplies by a royal ordonnance. But no sooner was this attempted, than the 
county assemblies met, and ofiered it the most energetic resistance. Protests, 
remonstrances, and denunciations were poured into Vienna in rapid succession ; 
and at last the popular ferment reached such a pitch, that the government found 
it absolutely necessary to yield the point in dispute. 

In 1825, Francis I. convoked the diet, and from that moment the old 
struggle, which the wars with France had suspended, vv^as renewed. The required 
subsidies were voted, bat voted with so many precautionary conditions, that it was 
evident that the members felt serious alarm for the safety of the constitution. 
The session was, moreover, rendered for ever memorable by an incident, in itself 



294 mSTOKY OF hukgary. 

of trifling importance, but of vast significance when viewed in connexion with 
subsequent events. It was in it that Count Stephen Szechenyi naade his first 
speech in the Magyar language. 

The life of this extraordinary man is more remarkable as an instance of what 
may be achieved by well-directed energy, labouring in obedience to the dic- 
tates of patriotism, than for any brilliant triumphs of eloquence or diplomacy. 
He was exactly the man for the crisis, and the crisis drew him forth as a 
magnet draws steel. He took in all the wants of the country at a glance, and 
immediately set to work to supply them. He was no great orator ; so that his 
influence over the Magyars — an influence such as no private individual has ever 
acquired over a people, except, perhaps, Kossuth and O'Connell — must be looked 
upon rather as the triumph of practical good sense and good intentions, than of 
rhetorical appeals to prejudices or passion. His life, previous to 1825, had 
admirably fitted him for the great work upon which he was entering. He had 
passed through vicissitudes enough to sharjfen his faculties and increase his self- 
reliance, without abating his courage or his hopefulness. His knowledge, too, 
was of a sort which seldom begets pride or self-sufficiency — knowledge of the 
world and of men, founded on observation and experience. He commenced life 
as an officer of hussars ; and, in the terrible campaigns which preceded the 
downfal of Napoleon, he had fought in the Austrian service with distinguished 
courage. Though belonging to one of the oldest and most illustrious families of 
Hungary, — or rather, perhaps, for that very reason, the system of favouritism and 
intrigue by which the Austrian army has always been governed, kept him down 
to the rank of captain during the whole period of his service, seventeen years in 
all. When peace was restored, his position became intolerable. To a man of 
active and cultivated mind, the dull routine of garrison life was slavery of the 
worst kind. He had a seat in the chamber of magnates, to be sure ; but as long 
as he held the emperor's commission, it would, according to military etiquette, 
have been unbecoming in him to speak his sentiments freely, if they were 
opposed to the policy of the government. 

He accordingly quitted the army, and set out on his travels. His attention 
was principally fixed upon France and England, but upon the latter in particular. 
He spent a considerable length of time in this country, occupied in the diligent 
and careful study of our social and political institutions. He saw that the only 
hope for any nation in modern times lies in close application to industrial 
pursuits, and the development of its national resources ; and he saw also, that 
nothing was clearer than that success in such a, course was only attainable under 
a free government. It is not merely the improvement of man's moral and intel- 
lectual nature that need liberty of the press and security from the arbitrary 
violence of power. In the race of industrial enterprise, none must be cumbered 
with unnecessary weights, nor troubled by vexatious interference on the part of 
those in power. Hungary was already in possession of free institutions. To 
preserve and uphold them Szechenyi saw it was necessary that there should be a 



SZECilENYI 6 REFOllMS. 



295 



total change in the habits of her people, that they should learn to rely more on 
their own efforts, sharpen their intellects by commercial pursuits, and forget 
their differences of race and language in the common desire to better their 
material condition. 

When he returned home he had formed his plans, and he set about carrying 
them into effect with a vigour and energy which left little doubt of his success. 
He had to act in the presence of powerful and ever- watchful enemies ; but he 
determined to baffle them by the moderation of his language, and the legality of his 
acts ; to aim rather at making his principles take deep root in the hearts of the 
people and work out their own results, than at producing striking effects at the 
outset. 




^ STEPHEN SZECHENYI. 

The first object to which his attention was directed was the restoration of the 
Magyar language, which, under the Germanizing efforts of Austria, had fallen 
into almost total disuse amongst the higher classes. He knew how intimately the 
use of the national language is connected with the feeling of nationality — the 
mysterious influence which the sound of the tongue in which strong men lisped 
their earliest prayers at their mother's knee, and in which all the holiest and 
purest affections of home and childhood found expression — possesses in rousing 



296 HISTOBY OF HUNGARY. 

the feeling of attacliment to country and liberty. But the Magyar was now totally 
neo-lected by the Magyar gentlemen. Latin was the language of the diet, and of 
all legal and official documents, and German and French were alone used in good 
society. 

Szechenyi, as the first step in his scheme of reformation, set about rescuing it 
from the degradation and disuse into which it had fallen ; and as the best of all 
ways to induce others to do a thing is to do it oneself first, he rose in the diet 
of 1825, and, contrary to previous usage, made a speech in Magyar. His 
colleagues were surprised ; the magnates were shocked ; the nation was electrified, 
None were more delighted than the country gentlemen and yeomanry or small 
farmers — two classes which, whatever be their faults of ignorance and prejudice, 
are in every country the foremost supporters of national usages, and the bitterest 
haters of foreign domination. They, who had always adhered to the language 
and customs of their forefathers, had seen with regret and apprehension the 
gradual alienation of the higher nobility from both one and the other, and it was 
therefore with no small pride that they heard of the adoption of their cause by 
one of the magnates themselves. 

The diet sat for two years, and during the whole of that period Szechenyi 
continued his use of the native language, in which he strenuously opposed the 
designs of the court, and was soon considered the leader of the opposition or 
liberal party, which speedily grew up around him. His efforts were so successful, 
that before the close of the session, Francis was compelled to acknowledge the 
illegality of his previous acts, formally to recognise the independence of the 
country, and promise to convoke the diet at least once in every three years. 
Szechenyi had nobly testified the sincerity of his purposes, by proposing in the 
chamber of magnates the establishment of a society for the improvement of the 
Hungarian language ; and upon the objection being raised of want of funds, he 
instantly offered to subscribe a year's income (366,000), and his example being 
followed by count Karolyi Gyorgy, who gave ^4,000, £30,000 were soon raised, 
and the work was done.* 

In the meantime he had been occupied no less busily with his pen than in the 
diet. Though the number of these amongst the educated classes who made use of 
Hungarian in speaking Avas few, the number who made use of it in writing was 
fewer still. Szechenyi hastened to set the example of adopting it for the latter 
purpose, by the publication of a work, entitled "Hitel" {^Credit), in which he 
inquires into the causes of the want of commercial credit in Hungary, suggests 
the means of its removal, communicates the result of his observations in England 
and other countries, mercilessly ridicules the follies and prejudices of his country- 
men, rebukes their faults, and sums up all in the advice — " Seek what is practical, 
depend upon yourselves for your reform, and keep well in mind, that the star of 
Hungary's glory has yet to shine." The work had at first the effect of irritating 

* Paget's Hungary and Transylvania, vol. i. p. 209. 



DIET OF 1830. 297. 

and wounding the pride of the gentry, who were indignant at seeing their faults 
shown up with such homely familiarity, and some of the county assemblies 
ordered it to be burnt by the hands of the common hangman. But public opinion 
at last began to do him justice. The nervous energy of his style, the naivete and 
clearness of his illustrations, and the air of affectionate advice which he managed 
to throw round the severest of his rebukes, soon made his works gain ground 
amongst the people. They were translated into German even, read with avidity, 
and caused fear and trembling at Vienna. 

He soon had the satisfaction of seeing the Hungarian language growing to 
general use, but he was still vexed to see the total want of imity, co-operation, 
and communion which prevailed amongst the nobles, owing to the want of a 
newspaper press, or of any place of re-union where political subjects could be 
discussed amongst men of the same party with freedom and confidence. This he 
remedied by the establishment of the casino, at Pesth, upon the plan of the 
London clubs. He next turned his attention to the establishment of steam 
navigation on the Danube, It was sad to see that noble river rolling on idly 
to the sea, when on its* broad bosom all the rich products of the country might 
have been borne to a safe and profitable market, instead of lying idly in the farmers' 
hands. He accordingly rigged out a boat, sailed down the Danube right to the 
Black Sea, explored it thoroughly, found it navigable in every part, went over to 
England, studied the principles of the steam-engine as applied to navigation, 
brought back English engineers, formed a company, and at last confounded the 
multitude of sceptics, who scoffed at his efforts, By the sight of a steam-boat on 
the river in full work. This feat was accomplished in October, 1830. He then 
stood at the topmost point in popular favour, and all looked to him for guidance 
in the crisis which had arisen in Hungarian politics by means of the French 
revolution. 

That event produced a profound impression in Hungary, ov/ing to the excitable 
state in which it found- the public mind, and caused the utmost alarm to the 
government. Tl^e Marseillaise was sung in the streets of Pesth, and hundreds of 
the young men of the liberal party started for Paris, to drink in the revolutionary 
ideas at the fountain head. In the midst of this excitement, the emperor, being 
in need of new levies, was compelled to call an extraordinary meeting of the diet. 
The states voted the required subsidies, but sought to impose upon the cabinet a 
condition binding it to commit the command of Hungarian regiments to 
Hungarian oflacers exclusively. This was rejected by the ministry ; but so strong 
was the feeling on the subject, that it required all the efforts of the archduke 
Joseph, the palatine, who at that time enjoyed great popidarity, to get the vote 
carried without it. The deputies next proceeded to a revision of the constitution, 
for the first time within a century. The majority in the lower chamber were, of 
course, liberals ; but in the upper chamber, being composed of prelates and 
wealthy magnates, the conservative party had the preponderance. Of the various 
demands made by the latter, fourteen were now selected as prefer entalia, and after 



298 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

a stormy debate, passed both chambers. These may he said to contain every real 
wrong of which Hungary complained. 

" They demand that Dalmatia, Transylvania, Gallicia and Lodomeria should be 
incorporated Avith Hungary ; that the military frontiers should be placed under 
the command of the palatine, and governed by Hungarian laws ; that the duty on 
salt should be reduced ; that the edicts of government to officers of justice should 
be discontinued ; that the laws [respecting the taxes on the clergy should be 
observed ; that the Hungarian chancery should be made really and not nominally 
independent of the Austrian chancery ; that the coinage should bear the arms of 
Hungary ; that the exportation of gold and silver should be prevented ;"^' that 
paper money should be abolished, and a return made to metallic currency ; that 
the Hungarian language should be used in all official business ; that the fiscal 
estates, such as have fallen to the crown upon the extinction of the families to 
whom they were granted, should, as the law directed, be given only as the reward 
of public services, and not sold, as at present, to the highest bidder ; and, lastly, 
that spies should not be employed and trusted by the Austrian government in 
Hungary."! 

These, as may be readily perceived, Avere all so many demands that the existing 
laws should be strictly carried into efiect — reasonable requests enough, one would 
imap-ine ; but Austria had no intention whatever of complying with them, and put 
off" giving any answer from day to day, until the session was over. The deputies 
did not separate, however, without making an eloquent appeal to the cabinet on 
behalf of the unfortunate Poles, who had risen in insurrection in Warsaw, driven 
out the grand duke Constantine, and were now awaiting in terrible suspense the 
attack of the assembled forces of the empire. The^fifty-two counties of Hungary 
offered to raise each 2,000 men, making a total of 104,000, and to arm and support 
them at their own expense as long as the war should last, and send them to the 
assistance of the insurgents. But the Viennese cabinet had too much sympathy 
with the cause of absolutism, and too much mistrust of the liberal party, to give 
any countenance to the scheme. It accordingly fell to the grou«d, and the Poles 
were crushed. 

In the interval which followed the dissolution of the diet, Szechenyi still 
followed \ip his plan of reform with unwearied diligence, and owing to his 
exertions, a party was now formed which sought not merely the strict observance 
of the existing laws, but the reform of them, the abolition of the unjust privileges 
of the nobles, the emancipation of the peasantry, the establishment of a system of 
education, the equal distribution of the taxes, the equality of all religious sects, 
the improvement of the commercial code and of internal communication, and 
though last, not least, the freedom of the press. These projects were all 
strenuously debated, but on this occasion without any practical result. 

The next meeting was for a long time delayed, upon one pretext or another. 

* One of the fallacies of the country gentlemen, but by no means peculiar to those of Hungary. 

t Paget, vol. i. p. 160—1. 



THE BUDA AND PESTH SUSPENSION BEIDGE. 299 

At last it was convened in 1832, and proved in many respects one of the most 
important that had ever assembled. The object of the liberal party was to make 
the revision of the commercial code the first subject for consideration ; but the 
government managed dexterously to postpone this, and bring forward the 
grievances of the peasantry, thus making itself appear the poor man's friend, and 
throwing the odium of injustice on the liberal party, in case the necessary 
concessions were refused through the bigotry of any of the more ignorant members 
of the nobility. 

In the midst of these checks, however, Szechenyi achieved one great triumph^ 
"We have already alluded to the singular jealousy with which the nobles looked 
upon any attempt to impose upon them a fair share of the public burdens. 
Exemption from all tax or contribution to the public revenue, of whatever kind, 
they considered one of their dearest privileges. The absurdity, mischief, and 
injustice of such a claim in a country where the nobles comprised all but the 
poorest class of the population, happily amongst us, needs no demonstration. 
Szechenyi saw clearly, that until this monstrous anomaly was removed, there was 
no hope for the country. It was, however, no easy task ; for the abuse was sup- 
ported, not by self-interest only, but the scarcely less powerful feeling of pride. 
He therefore attacked the principle of exemption in one of its least details, and 
thus paved the way for its total downfal. The want of a bridge over the Danube, 
to connect the two cities of Pesth and Buda, had long been felt. To supply it, 
however, no one seemed disposed to contribute anything better than talk, until 
Szechenyi took it in hand. With him, to conceive a project was to carry it into 
effect. He thought it a national disgrace that the two chief towns of the 
kingdom, lying on opposite banks of the same river, should, during six months of 
the year, have no better means of intercommunication than a bridge of boats, and, 
during the remainder, the ice and a ferry-boat. He accordingly proposed, that a 
stone or iron bridge should be erected by means of a loan, raised in shares, the 
interest of which should be paid by a toll levied upon all passengers, whether 
noble or not, and authorized by an act of the diet. The opposition this met with 
was immense. The idea of a noble paying any tax, however small, was so new to 
the Hungarian mind, and withal seemed so monstrous and outrageous, that many of 
the country gentlemen doubted whether any man in possession of his senses could 
for a moment entertain it. Every possible objection was raised. It was said the 
river was too wide, the current too rapid ; that in winter the ice would sweep it 
away. But Szechenyi was not daunted. He supported his scheme in the 
journals, in the chamber, in the saloons, by argument, entreaty, and ridicule ; and 
at last had the satisfaction of seeing a bill passed authorizing the taxation of the 
nobles in the shape of a bridge-toll. The principle of exemption had received its 
death-blow, and the old tories were in despair. Cziraki, the chief justice of 
the kingdom, imitating the example said to have been set by a noble lord in the 
House of Peers in England, who, on the passing of the Catholic Emancipation 
Act, exclaimed, with tears in his eyes, that " the sun of England had set for 



300 HISTORY OF HUNGARY, 

ever,"— wept bitterly, and declared that " he would never cross this ill-fated 
bridge, for in its erection he saw the downfal of the Hungarian nobility." 
iShortsighted old man ! Across the bridge lay the path to the salvation and 
independence of the country, and it is one of the highest proofs of Szechenyi's 
sagacity that he was the first to discover it. 

The next question which came under discussion was the revision of the Urbarial 
Code, or in other words the laws regulating the condition of the peasantry. The 
Urbarium of Maria Theresa was a measure of the highest importance, and was 
looked upon by the peasants as their charter ; but there were still many grievances 
which pressed heaviljr upon them, one of the greatest being the load of taxation, 
the whole of which they bore. They could not be removed from their farms, 
to be sure, without good and substantial reasons ; but if they were removed, their 
liabilities to the state did not cease, and their liabilities to their landlord seldom 
left them much room for economising. It was, however, clearly the interest of the 
crown to protect and favour them, for it was to them alone it could look for 
supplies. 

The principle upon which the neAV Urbarium was based was in itself excellent ; 
" that where it was safe and proper, the rights of the peasant should be increased 
and his burdens diminished, and in no instance should his privileges, however 
attained, be curtailed." Acting upon this, the petty tithes, often the means of 
much vexatious oppression, were abolished ; the robot labour due to the landlord 
as rent, and which, notwithstanding the vast changes in value which property 
of every kind had undergone since the days of Maria Theresa, still remained fixed 
at 104 days a year, was reduced to 52; but what was more important than all, 
was the concession to the peasant of a property in his fief, and, consequently, the 
right of buying and selling the investitures and improvements. The efiect of this 
measure was, in reality, to attach the taxation to the land and not to a class ; for 
henceforth if a noble became the purchaser of a peasant's fief, he became liable 
for all the burdens upon it, of whatever kind and to whomsoever due. 

The Urbarium of Maria Theresa had left the administration of justice amongst 
the peasantry in a most unsatisfactory state. The only court to Avhich they could 
resort in the first instance was the manor court of the estate on which he lived, or, 
as it was called in Hungarian Latin, the Sedes Bominalis, in which the landlord 
himself presided. In cases of disputes between two peasants, justice no doubt in 
most cases was fairly and impartially administered ; but in that large class of 
suits which must have arisen out of the peculiar relation in which the peasant and 
the noble stood to each other, to suppose the latter to be capable of just judgment 
when he himself was plaintifi" or defendant, was to attribute to him an amount of 
conscientiousness and strength of character certainly not warranted by our 
experience of human nature. The jurisdiction of this tribunal was, therefore, 
henceforth limited to suits between peasant and peasant, and all those arising 
between landlord and tenant were referred to a newly constituted court, composed 
of five disinterested persons, of whom the magistrate of the district should be one. 



THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE. ~ 301 

« 
the right of appeal to the county court remaining in force as before. The noble 

was also deprived of the, power, which he had previously possessed, of inflicting 

corporeal punishment to the extent of twenty-five blows of a stick upon refractory 

peasants, and was restricted to a sentence of imprisonment from one to three 

days, a power which the system of forced labour rendered necessary. 

An Englishman may think that, even after these reforms, the condition of the 
peasantry still remained in a most unsatisfactory state ; but when we take into 
account what it had previously been, and remember the weight of prejudice and 
self-interest which the promoters of these just and reasonable, though partial, 
concessions . had to contend against, we must acknowledge that modern history 
presents few cases of a social revolution deserving so much of our attention and 
admiration. 

The question of language was the most delicate which had as yet been touched 
upon. The preceding chapter will have put the reader in possession of the great 
diversity of language and race which prevailed amongst the population of Hungary. 
The main object of the diet now was to obliterate these distinctions, and make the 
people— as far, at least, as legislation could do it — a united whole. The first 
step in this direction was clearly the selection of one language out of the many to 
receive official support and sanction, and thus to pave the way for its adoption 
amongst all classes. Latin was at that time the language of all official docu- 
ments and of the courts of law, ever since the reign of Stephen, in the year 1000. 
He wrote a political testament, in which he declared, singularly enough, that no 
country could securely exist which spoke but one language, and he prpmoted the 
distinction of races by every means in his power. When he resolved upon intro- 
ducing Christianity into Hungary, he invited priests from Germany to aid him, and 
they naturally enough made every effort to make Latin — the language of the church 
and of the learned all over Europe at that period — the official language in their 
adopted country. They were successful, but the knowledge of it was always 
confined to the clergy and nobility."'' The mass of the common people knew no 
tongue but their vernacular, and the laws and proceedings of the diet were, of 
course, sealed books to them. This made no great diflerence when every poor 
man was a serf, and when his only business in life was to obey the mandates of 
his seigneur. But when he was all but emancipated, when serfdom was virtually 
abolished, when distinctions of caste were about to disappear, and when a voice 
in the government of the country became a privilege in which the great mass of the 
population might look forward to share at no distant date, a change became 
absolutely necessary. To allow the law to continue to speak in an unknown 
tongue would have been an abuse which no body of legislators could |)ass over. 

The disuse of the Latin, then, Avas a point upon which all were agreed ; but . 
the great difficulty lay in the choice of a substitute. Not that any hesitation was . 
felt as to which of the existing languages had the best right to fill the vacant place ; . 

* See Kossuth's speech at Boston, at the Legislative Banquet> 



302 



HISTORY OF HUNGAKY. 



but it was feared that the choice of any one would exasperate the races who 
spoke the others ; and the event proved that these fears were not without founda- 
tion. Still the duty of the diet was not less clear. Every consideration pointed 
to the Magyar as the only one worthy to become the recognised language of the 
nation. It was the most vigorous, sonorous, flexible, and highly cultivated of them 
all. It had been proved equal to every requirement of the poet, orator, and philo- 
sopher, and was capable of still greater extension and amelioration. It had, for 
more than a thousand years, been the tongue of the nobles and gentry, of all the 
learned, able, brave, and intelligent of the nation. There was no gentleman, of 
whatever race, who did not know it ; there was no peasant who might not acquire it. 
It was the language which all the youth of the colleges, of the bar, and the county 




TOWN-HALL AT PESTH. 

assemblies had spontaneously and unanimously adopted it as the vehicle of their 
thoughts, hopes, vows, and aspirations. Upon none of the others could any man 
of ordinary sagacity have bestowed a moment's consideration : German was the 
language of the deadliest enemies of, the constitution, and was indissolubly con- 
nected, in every Hungarian mind, with the idea of Austrian encroachment and 
rapacity. The Viennese cabinet had long sought, by propagating it, to dena- 
tionalise the Magyars. The Sclavonian was liable, if possible, to still greater 
objections. It was the means by which Russia sought to propagate the doctrine 



ADOPTION OF THE MAGYAR. 



303 




SERB, CROAT, AND GERMAN. 



304 '^fitSTORY OF HUNGARY. 

of " Panslavism " amongst the people of eastern Europe, the odious and terrible 
doctrine which represented the czar as the natural ruler of all who professed his 
faith and made use of the Sclavonic tongue. As to any of the others spoken in 
Hungary, it would have been just as absurd to urge their claims to adoption, as 
to have recommended Welsh or Gaelic to the judges at Westminster for adoption 
when the Latin and Norman French fell into disuse in the last century. 

It was, therefore, proposed and carried, " that from the 1st of January, 1844, the 
proceedings of all courts in Hungary Proper (thus excluding Croatia and Sclavonia) 
should be conducted in the Magyar language, and that on and after that date, none 
should be considered qualified for the degree of advocate, or for any public office, 
who had not acquired that language." It will thus be seen that a period of eight 
years was afforded to all young men aspiring to public or professional employment to 
fit themselves for the change, and it must be remembered that the noble class were 
not confined to any race in particular. There were amongst the Germans, 
Wallacks and Sclavacks, great numbers of nobles, and amongst the Magyars, 
owing to circumstances in the early history of the country, many who had no 
political rights whatever. Nobility Avas not confined to any race. It was another 
name merely for participation in the political rights which in this country every 
ten pound householder enjoys. 

After passing an act obliging the judges to give the reasons for their decisions 
and publish them, and a resolution praying the king to convene the states at 
Pesth for the future, instead of at Presburg,^* the diet separated in May, 1836. 

The man who in future struggles was destined to play so prominent a part, 
during the whole of these absorbing proceedings, was merely an intent and diligent 
looker-on* He had watched Szechenyi's efibrts, and rejoiced in his successes with a 
devotion which was in itself an omen of his own still greater triumphs, and in so 
doing was qualifying himself for the task of carrying on the work, which the 
former 'Was compelled to abandon when it was but half finished. He was a 
gentleman of noble origin, of course, but his whole fortune lay in his talents, 
which at that period were devoted to journalism — a profession which the Hunga- 
rians had not yet learnt to estimate at its full value. He was still but thirty years 
of age, and within the diet he was known as a promising young man, although, 
amongst the world without, his name — the name of Louis Kossuth, which has 
since become a household word in two hemispheres- — had never yet been heard. 

His family were originally from the county of Turocz in Upper Hungary, a 
district inhabited principally by Sclavacks, and although they were of Sclavonian 
origin, they were not less Magyar nobles — another proof that the dominant race did 
not monopolize all political privileges. About the beginning of the present century, 
his father removed to Bodrog-Szerdahely in the county of Zemplin, where he 
found It no easy matter to supply all the wants of his increasing family. Louis, 
his only son, was born on the 27th of April, 1802, and distinguished himself at 

* The vicinity of this town .to the Austrian frontier always rendered it a favourite 
place of meeting with the government. 



LOUIS KOSSUTH. 305 

an early age by his precocious talents, and the sweetness and gaiety of his 
disposition. The elder Kossuth died while his son was still in his childhood, but 
his widow, a woman of masculine mind and tender heart, managed, out of her 
impoverished means, to give him such an education as would qualify him for any 
profession he might choose to enter. At an early age he entered the Calvinist 
college of Sarospatak, and having completed his studies at the university of Pesth, 
duly received the diploma of an advocate. He returned to his native place in 
1822, and was there appointed honorary attorney in the county court, an office 
answering to our crown solicitor, at the age of twenty. During this period he 
appears to have devoted a considerable portion of his attention to field sports, and 
we do not find that he gave great token of capacity for higher pursuits until 
the cholera broke out in 1831. While the pestilence was raging, he became 
the ministering angel of the poor, visiting them in their hovels, administering 
medicines with his own hands, soothing the agony of the dying, and encouraging 
the hopes of the survivors. At. last the report got abroad amongst them that they 
were being poisoned by the nobles and the Jews, and they instantly rose in 
insurrection, and began to commit the most frightful outrages, and it was owing to 
Kossuth's exertions alone that their delusions were dissipated and still greater mis- 
chief prevented. When the crisis passed away, he was a local celebrity, but a 
celebrity whose claims to notice were founded upon heroism of no common order. 
When the diet met in 1832, he was selected, according to the custom in such cases, 
to supply the place of a magnate, who was unable or unwilling to attend. He 
thus had a seat in the lower chamber, and had a right to speak but not to vote. He 
found himself placed in the parliamentary arena at a period of unexampled excite- 
ment, when vast social, as well as political changes were in contemplation, though 
to what they might lead none could tell. The political horizon was already clouded, 
and fear was mingled in the hopes of many, but the deputies little knew that, 
in the person of a young and unknown lawyer, their guide and prophet was in their 
midst. His first oratorical eff'ort in the chamber was a failure, either for want of 
practice or preparation, and he was consequently led to look about for some other 
means of distinguishing himself as an atdvocate of liberal principles. He hit upon 
a happy expedient for serving both the popular cause and his own reputation, and 
it was all the more valuable from its complete novelty. Whether from the 
jealousy of the government or the apathy of the Magyars, no printed reports of 
the parliamentary proceedings had ever yet been published, so that the people 
remained without any intelligence of the sayings and doings of their represen- 
tatives, except such as was afforded them by rumour or hearsay. To supply this 
defect, Kossuth resolved to devote the time, which would otherwise have been 
wasted in idle listening, to carefully reporting everything that took place, and 
circulated it all over the country on a small printed sheet. The importance of the 
proceedings which then occupied the attention of the diet caused it to be read 
with extraordinary eagerness, and Kossuth rendered it still more attractive by 
amplifying, and often even embellishing the speeches. The cabinet, however, 



306 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

soon took the alarm, and although the censorship Avas unknown to the Hungarian 
law, prohibited the printing and j}ublication of the reports. This was a heavy blow, 
but Kossuth was not baffled. He instantly gathered round him a great number of 
young men to act as secretaries, who wrote out a great number of copies of the 
j ournal, Avhich were then circulated in manuscript throughout Hungary. The govern- 
ment v»ras completely foiled, and new ardour v/as infused into the liberal party. 
When the session was at an end he resolved to follow up his plan by reporting 
the meetings of the county assemblies, which Avere then the scenes of fiery 
debates. The young men thronged to them from every side, as the popular 
character of the meetings enabled them to infuse more vigour into their denun- 
ciations of the government than Avould have accorded with the dignity and gravity of 
the chambers of the diet. This he pursued Avith success. The governm,ent stopped 
his journal in the post-office. He then established a staff of messengers and carriers, 
who circulated it from village to village. The enthusiasm of the people Avas fast 
rising to a flame. A crisis Avas imminent. It Avas resolved to arrest Kossuth. 
Orders Avere accordingly sent to the archduke palatine to that effect ; and although 
it Avas a direct A'iclation of the laAV to depriA'e a Hungarian noble of his liberty 
until he had been formally convicted, he Avas seized, and shut up in the Neuhaus, 
a prison built at Pesth by Joseph H. He was, however, not brought to trial till 
1839, and Avas then sentenced to four years' imprisonment. The charge brought 
against him Avas, that he had circulated false and inaccurate reports ; but the 
real ground of offence Avas, as every one kncAV, that he had circulated any 
reports at all. The government dreaded the strength, union, and combination 
Avhich the diffusion of accurate intelligence of the proceedings of each assembly 
Avould have conferred upon the Avhole municipal body ; for previously the 
county assemblies had been compelled to act singly and Avithout concert. 

But it Avas from the proceedings against Wesselenyi that the excitement arose 
Avhich gave Kossuth's journal much of its celebrity and eclat. This nobleman 
had attended a county assembly in Transylvania, Avhere he possessed some 
property, and had there strongly urged the electors to instruct their representa- 
tives to support the bill for the emancijjation of the peasantry, Avhich was then 
before the diet, j)ointed out in forcible terms the absolute necessity there noAV 
existed for the gradual abolition of unjust and oppressive distinctions, and for 
making all men equal before the laAV. He took occasion at the same time to 
denounce the odious and detestable policy Avhich the government had so long 
pursued, of stirring up the peasantry against the nobility, and the nobility against 
the peasantry, and then, taking advantage of these divisions, to spoil and oppress 
both. He Avas loudly applauded ; no one could deny the truth of Avhat he said, 
though the Aace-ispan, or sheriff, objected to his language as too strong. 

Two months afterwards, Avhen the recollection of that particular speech, or at 
least of the Avords used, Avas Aveli nigh lost, and Avhen Wesselenyi had taken his 
seat in the diet as a Hungarian magnate, the government commenced a prosecu- 
tion against him for high treason. The baron denied the legality of the pro- 



WESSELENYI. 307 

ceeding, on the ground that nothmg uttered at a puhlic meeting could be made 
the subject of a process before any other tribunal, unless the president of' 
the meeting, or some member of the assembly, formally objected at the time, 
and commenced " a verbal process," as it was called, upon the spot. But it 
never entered the mind of the Austrian cabinet to stand upon strict legalityi It" 
had never done so at any period of its connexion with Hungary, and it certainly 
had no notion of doing so now. His protest was accordingly disregarded by 
the court, but hot by the country. The excitement rose to boiling point. 
Petitions and remonstrances were poured in from every county. Balogh, a 
prominent member of the diet, arose in his place, and decfared that he adopted 
Wesselenyi's words as his own. He was forthwith included in the prosecution. 
His constituents then met, and declared that his language was exactly such as 
they themselves would have used, that they approved of it, and wished to be 
answerable for it. The government was now heartily sick of the affair, and 
caused it to be intimated to Wesselenyi, that if he chose to apply for a pardon, it 
would be granted him. This he indignantly declined to do, and the proceedings 
against him were accordingly continued ; but although the alleged offence was 
committed in 1835, the trial dragged its slow length through four years, and 
it was not till 1839 that sentence was at last pronounced, finding him guilty of 
mitigated high treason, and sentenced him to three years' imprisonment for 
having made use of the following words at the county meeting referred to : "The 
government sucks oat the marrow of nine millions of men (the peasantrj^), but it 
will not allow us, the nobles, to better their condition by legislative means ; but, 
retaining them in their present state, it Only waits its own time to exasperate 
them against us : — then it will come forward to rescue us. But woe to us ! 
From freemen we shall be degraded to the state of slaves." It was a singular 
circumstance, that it was owing to the excitement consequent 'upon these 
infamous proceedings, that Kossuth owed his first step in political life ; that in 
the very act of striking down one enemy, Atistria should have raised up another 
and a deadlier one. 

Most of these rigorous measures were the work of Fidel Palfi, the chancellor of 
Hungary, a cunning diplomatist of the Talleyrand school, but in all other respects 
as devoid of talents as he was of patriotism. As a renegade, he was specially 
marked out for popular execration by the death of his master, Francis I., in 1835, 
who was thus spared the odium attaching to the prosecution of Kossuth and 
Wesselenyi, and which fell Avith full force upon his ministers. Francis was a 
narroAV-minded, bigoted, and suspicious prince, remarkable for nothing save for 
the obstinate resistance he offered to Napoleon, Avhich, hoAvcA'er, Avas due rather 
to an animal instinct than any high principle. He hated science and literature, 
and science and literature seemed to hate him, for they had bestoAved on him none 
of their gifts. He kneAv no language but his OAvn, and that imperfectly. When 
he died, numbers Avere glad, nobody Avas sorry, pjui the majority Avas indifferent. 
His successor, Ferdinand IV. (of Hungary— ~^fof Austria), Avas afflicted Avith 
I y2 



308 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

mental debility when he ascended the throne, and the administration of affairs 
consequently fell entirely into the hands of the archduke Louis and prince 
Metternich. Two better exponents of the Austrian system could not have been 
chosen. Metternich, in particular, had proved himself one of the ablest high 
priests that had ever ministered at the altar of absolutism. When he first assumed 
the reins of power in 1832, an amnesty, which set at liberty a great number of 
political offenders, gave hopes to the liberal party that he "vvas about to adopt the 
policy of progress and conciliation. They soon saw their error. His ruling 
passion was a hatred of change ; his great mission seemed to be to keep things 
fixed. He would have stopped the revolution of the earth on its axis if he could, 
and have placed all the sovereigns and nobility on the side next the sun, and 
placed a military cordon to keep the people in the darkness. The house of 
Austria had been remarkable long before his time for its steadfast adherence to 
the principle of immobility, but it was he who developed it into a policy, and 
placed it in alliance with legitimacy and divine right. He worshipped facts — he 
hated opinions. He was constantly occupied in building fortifications between 
them. But whenever, in obedience to the eternal law of progress — a law which 
has witnessed the uprise and decay of whole dynasties of despots, and, like truth, 
will outlive them all — forced him to give ground before the advancing tide of 
thought and civilisation, he had cunning enough not to struggle against it. He 
yielded invariably with a good grace, and then set as diligently to work as 
ever to make intrenchments against another inroad, and, if possible, to make 
each step the last : building embankments on the sea-shore in a summer 
calm, and fondly imagining that because the Avater rippled noiselessly against 
their base, that there was no fierceness in the winds and no might in the 
billows ! 

It is hard to say, however, that this fear of change is not a necessity Avhich the 
very nature of the Austrian empire forces upon all its ministers. There is no 
monarchy in the world, except Turkey, made up of such heterogeneous materials. 
But a very small part of the population is of the same race as its rulers. At 
the present day the Germans, scattered through the whole of the provinces, amount 
only to 7,833,157 in all ; the Sclaves, scattered in the same manner, 17,760,159 ; 
the Magyars form a compact body of 5,470,910 5 and the Italians a compact body 
also of 5,506,000.* The Aiistrians, properly so called, number only 3,000,000 in 
all, and yet they rule over 30,000,000, How this is managed has puzzled many 
people. There is hardly one department of human knowledge, skill, enterprise, or 
industry, in which they have ever displayed superior excellence. Their greatest 
battles have been won by foreign generals in command of foreign troops. Ger- 
many, owes to them but few, if any, of her intellectual triumphs. Science, art, or 
literature have received few favours from the house of Hapsburg : maritime 
supremacy is forbidden it. There is no spring of energy in the Austrian people ; 

* La Ilongrie Ilistorique, p. 199, 



TROUBLES IN Ti; AN SYLVAN lA. 809 

no national life, love of liberty and glory, such as have made England and America 
the dread and envy of the world. A race of stiff, bigoted, and un warlike 
monarchs, an effeminate and impoverished noblesse, and a people of slaves,— 
such has the archduchy of Austria been for centuries ; and yet that archduchy — 
a speck on the map — has grown into a great power, rules over whole nations of 
foreigners, and has outlived storms before which many prouder and nobler barks 
have gone doAvn. The explanation of all lies in the policy of division ; of 
setting race against race, and creed against creed ; of sowing and perpetuating 
discord ; in working upon national prejudices and antipathies. It is now no 
longer a secret ; since 1848 the world knows it. Let us hope that those 
whom it most concerns will not forget it, when the hour comes in which 
most of all there will be need to remember it. 

In 1840, the Viennese cabinet first gave evidence of its intention, for a while, 
at least, to abandon the policy of intimidation, and have recourse to that of 
conciliation. It saw that it was impossible to arrest the movement which had 
now commenced in Hungary, and it resolved to make an effort to direct it 
towards its own ends. The eastern question, which in 1840 was setting the 
European diplomatists by the ears, caused Austria serious alarm, and induced her 
to increase her military forces. Levies and subsidies were required from Hungary, 
and the diet was acccordingly summoned. An amnesty had been previously 
granted, under which Kossuth and Wesselenyi regained their liberty. The former 
came out broken in health indeed, but a more implacable enemy of the government 
than ever, and the latter had lost his sight in prison. The address of the 
chancellor at the opening of the diet was full of promises and blandishments ; but 
the deputies were wise enough to doubt or disbelieve. The old reforms of 1835, 
which had been but half completed, were again brought on the tapis, to receive a 
finishing touch, and the conservative party strained every nerve not only to put 
a stop to all further movement in that direction, but to undo all that had been 
done ; but it was signally defeated. The condition of the peasantry received still 
further amelioration, a commercial code was framed, which gave security and 
stimulus to industrial enterprise, and revived confidence by the abolition of the 
mischievous privilege of inviolability, which enabled the noble to bid defiance to 
his creditors, and also removed some of the civil disabilities under which the 
Jews were labouring. 

In the meantime Transylvania had not been idle. The constitution of this 
country was based upon a diploma granted by Leopold I., and known as the 
Diploma Leopoldinum, which was afterwards regarded as the charter of Tran- 
sylvanian freedom, at least while under Austrian rule, as it was in reality but 
a confirmation of rights and privileges already in existence. It guaranteed 
religious toleration, the existence of the Hungarian laws, and the reservation of 
offices and appointments of state to natives alone, as well as a number of minor 
immunities. As the imperial power became more firmly established in the 
country, this charter was gradually infringed upon ; and though Maria Theresa 



310 HISTORY OF HTJNGARY, 

acknowledged and accepted it at her accession, tlie constitution, as well as that 
of Hungary', fell into total abeyance during the whole of her reign and that of her 
successor, Joseph. 

During the French war, the diet was called together once or twice, as it had 
been in Hungary, for the purpose of voting supplies, but beyond this the 
government of the country was as arbitrary as at Vienna. It was said, that 
of the whole of the articles composing Leopold's diploma, but one had been 
observed, and that was the one which stipulated that the commander-in-chief of 
the military force should be a German. The county meetings and munici]oal 
institutions of every sort fell into total desuetude, and the whole affairs of the 
countrv were administered b)' the corrupt bureaucracy which in most German 
states, and of late years in France, has been destroying all that is manly, 
upright, and independent in the national character. 

The famous Three Days of July, in 1830, had as thrilling an effect in Tran- 
sylvania as elsewhere. The people with one voice demanded the restoration of their 
institutions ; and, as the first step towards the concession of their rights, the 
government re-established the county meetings. This was an important point, as 
in the absence of a free press, or, in fact, of any press, it was the only means of 
agitation. Baron Wesselenyi and some of his friends took advantage of it, by 
buying land in every county, which gave them a voice in each assembly, and they 
were thus enabled to pass from one to the other and harangue the freeholders. 
They denounced in strong terms the arbitrary raising of soldiers and levying of 
taxes, the increase of the salt tax, and the imposition of duties so high as to be 
almost prohibitory upon various articles of export or import, and the gross 
intolerance shewn towards the protestants. The excitement speedily rose to such 
a pitch, that Baron Wesselenyi announced his intention of allowing no more 
soldiers to be levied on his estates till a diet Avaa granted, and his example v,'as 
followed by a great number of counties. The government w^as now thoroughly 
alarmed, thought an insurrection was imminent, and troops Avere sent down to 
quell it. The coiu't could not understand the possibility of legal agitation without 
an appeal to arms. But the general in command reported that all was perfectly 
quiet, and as there was no excuse for resorting to violence, and as it was evident 
the county assemblies were resolved to persevere, a diet was at last called together 
in 1834. It was so long since it had been last convened, that few of the deputies 
knew anything of the forms or usages of parliamentary discussion, familiarity 
with Avhich forms so important a part of a legislator's qualifications under a 
• constitutional goverment, and a great deal of time was consequently wasted in 
useless discussions. But still so firm was the attitude assumed by the liberal 
party, that the cabinet was again forced to take refuge in a dissolution. In 
1837, the states Avere once more assembled, but this time at Hermanstadt, instead 
of Kolosvar. The inhabitants of the former were nearly »11 Germans, and it was 
hoped that the influence of their phlegmatic temperament would moderate the 
fiery zeal of the Magyars. In this also the government found itself mistaken. 



THE PESTH GAZETTE. 311 

This, as well as the subsequent diet, stood its ground so firmly, that the ministry 
had at last to yield, and restore the constitution to its normal state. 

In the meantime, the political excitement in Hungary had not failed to lend a 
new impulse to intellectual progress and commercial enterprise. Steamers were 
launched on the Teyss as well as on the Danube ; railways were constructed ; the 
nobles submitted to the ordinary laws of commercial fair dealing, and acknowledged 
the validity of their own bills. The want of a national bank, however, Avas the 
cause of incalculable evils. Landed proprietors, for want of any other v/ay of 
raising money, were forced to resort to Jews and usurers of all kinds and 
countries, who fleeced them^ without rnercy. In their distress, they looked to the 
diet for deliverance. The publishing trade, perhaps, received a greater impetus 
than any. The national mind seemed to have awakened from its torpor, and 
girded itself like a strong man after sleep for the coming struggle. Thousands 
of works in the Magyar language were issued, all beaiing the stamp of originA'ty. 
The theatres were filled nightly by brilliant audiences, who thronged to witness 
dramas illustrative of the nobler periods of Hungarian history ; and the loud 
plaudits which followed every sentiment which could be possibly tvv'isted into an 
allusion to the existing state of afFairs, gave clear warning of the crisis that was 
at hand. 

Kossuth, after his liberation from prison, had taken up his abode for a short 
period at a watering place called Parad, for the purpose of recruiting his 
shattered health, and for a time wholly abstained from t aking any part in public 
affairs. On the 1st of January, 1841, however, a printer in Pesth, named.. 
Landerer, obtained permission to publish a journal, entitled Pesthi Hirlap, or 
the Pesth Gazette. He offered the editorship to Kossuth, who accepted it, but 
only on condition that he should be perfectly untrammelled in the expression of 
his opinions. At first his articles displayed great moderation, but warming as he 
went on, his old fervour came upon him once more, and he commenced a series of 
attacks upon the government as remarkable for their brilliancy and bitterness as 
for the prudence with whicli they avoided anything like illegality. The cabinet 
now, for the first time, saw clearly that they had to deal with, an enemy, who 
might be slain or imjirisoned, but who could never be subdued. Szechenyi, the 
originator of the new movement, began to tremble in the presence of the storm 
which he himself had raised ; but when he ventured to remonstrate, he found he 
was no longer master of the elements. Kossuth continued his labours, and soon 
raised the circulation of his paper to 10,000 copies — an immense number in a 
comrtry where the newspaper press had hitherto hardly had a footing. He made 
vigorous onslaughts upon the privileges of the noblesse, and pleaded the cause of 
the middle and lov/er classes unanswerably. A. large body of the aristocracy 
was irritated, and started a rival journal, which, being supported by the 
authorities became possessed of great influence, and was mainly instrumental in 
defeating Kossuth's election, when he was jiroposed as a candidate for Pesth, 
in 1843. Nothing" disheartened, he continued to denounce abuses, to advocate 



312 HlSTOllY 01<' liUAGAllY. 

education and all other social as well as political reforms, till in 1844, owing to a 
change of ministry which threw the liberals out of office, he lost the editorship of 
the Gazette ; but he had kindled a flame Avhich now blazed fiercely enough of 
itself. 

The only resource to which Austria could appeal in this extremity was to stir 
up a war of races by calling on the Croats to support her. They were a Sclavonic 
people, and Avere desirous of securing the ascendancy of their race and language 
in all the countries in which Sclaves were to be found. It was obviously the 
interest of Austria to have discouraged their efforts, instead of promoting them, 
for the triumph of Sclavism was the triumph of Russia, whose favourite idea from 
the days of Peter the Great down, has been the extension of Muscovite supremacy 
over all tribes of Sclavonic origin. The Viennese cabinet, however, spent little 
thought upon the dangers that loomed in the future ; it is one of the characteristics 
of d^potism, that it seldom looks beyond the gratification of the hour. The Sclaves 
were every day excited against the Magyars by imperial agents, and urged on 
to resist the establishment of the Magyar as the official language. In spite of 
all these efibrts, the chambers contained an opposition headed by the highest 
parliamentary talents of the day. In the lower house, Klauzal, Szentkiralyi 
Szemere, Beothi, Bezeredi; in the upper, Stephen Szechenyi, Louis Batthyanyi, 
Ladislaus Teleki, and Baron Eotveos. The official language was the principal 
subject of debate ; around this the great battle of the races was to be fought. 
Austria hounded on the Croats, and her creatures in the diet, aided and supported 
by the Sclave representatives, offered the most determined opposition at every step 
of the discussion — an opposition which was not confined to the ordinarj'' tactics of 
parliamentary warfare, but exhausted all the resources of faction, intrigue, false- 
hood, and chicanery. An act was, nevertheless, passed, containing the following 
clause : — " The official language of the diet shall henceforward be the Magyar, 
exclusively. It shall, nevertheless, be lawful for the deputies of the annexed 
provinces, who do not speak Magyar, to use the Latin during the six years next 
ensuing. All public documents emanating from the king, or the tribunals, shall 
be drawn up in that language. The tribunals and government offices of the 
annexed provinces shall address themselves to the Hungarian tribunals in Magyar, 
and the latter shall answer in Latin ; the Magyar language shall be taught in all 
the schools of the dependent jarovinces, and shall alone be used in those within the 
frontiers of Hungary Proper." The Croats called this a barbarous and oppressive 
enactment. It was, in reality, an attempt to vulgarize the Magyar throughout the 
kingdom, without causing more than the least possible inconvenience to the inha- 
bitants — a measure of which we have already demonstrated the expediency and 
even the necessity. 

Despite of clamour the work of reform went on. The catholic priests had 
refused to celebrate mixed marriages ; the diet declared them valid, if celebrated by 
a protestant minister. The right of the nobles to the exclusive occupation of 
public offices and appointments was abolished, and they were thrown open to all 



THE FIRST MAGY.ill MINlgTY IN 1848. 







FRANCIS DEAK. 

FRINGE PAUL ESTERHAZY. 

BARON JOSEPH EOTVEOS. 



LOUIS KOSSUTH. LAZARUS MESZAROS. 

COUNT LOUIS BATTHYANYI BARTHOLOMEW SZEMERE. 

COUNT STEPHEN SZECHENYI GABRIEL KLAUZAL, 



314 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

without distinction. A bill was brought in, also making it bindin^^ on them to 
contribute in taxes ten millions of florins during the ensuing four years ; the 
conservative party in the upper chamber reduced the sum to four millions. The 
deputies refused to accept the amendment, and threw out the measure altogether. 
Many of the nobles, however, unwilling to he subjected to the humiliation of 
being compelled to take a share in meeting the burdens of the state, voluntarily 
inscribed their names in a list of those who declared themselves liable to taxation. 
A motion for the abolition of the feudal privilege, possessed by every noble, of 
re-purchasing real property at the same price for which it was sold, a long time 
after its alienation ; another intended to abolish all feudal dues for ever, and others 
relating to the generalization of the jury system, the abolition of capital punish- 
ment, and the establishment of a national bank, and of an equitable sale of 
custom duties between Hungary and Austria, were equally defeated by the 
pertinacious resistance of the conservative magnates, who adhered lirmly to 
the court. 

While this momentous struggle was going on, Kossuth was devoting his 
attention exclusively to the development of the material resources of the 
country. An association vv^as formed under his aus2:)ices, called the hcdettji/Il^ {h.e 
members of which pledged themselves to abstain from the use of Austrian 
manufactures luitil the tariff should be reformed. The efFect produced by this 
v/as astonishing, and clearly shov/ed hov/ Avidely the prevailing discontent liad 
spread cimopgst all classes of the population. The loss to Austrian trade 
was so great, that large numbers of her manufacturers had to transport their 
factories into Hungary to save themselves from ruin. During 1846-7 the 
excitement reached its height. The leaders of the liberal party from all parts of 
the kingdom met at Pesth during the quarterly fairs of these years, and 
discussed the various measures of reform in the presence of vast crowds. 

In November, 1847, the diet was again summoned. Louis Batthyanyi brought 
Kossuth forward as a candidate for the country of Pesth. The election was 
warmly contested b)'' the conservatives, who spared no effort to prevent the return 
of the redoubtable agitator. ISIoney was lavishly distributed, and the government 
officials vied in threatening and coaxing the electors to reject him., but in vain. 
The people fought the battle of their idol in the streets and on the hustings ; the 
ladies of the liberal party, amongst whom were included some of the most 
fascinating women in Hungary, fought it with more delicate, but more j)owerfal 
weapons in the drawing-rooms, He was elected by an overwhelming majority. 
He was now in the diet, with his literary jjrestige, his impassioned oratory, his 
popular sympathies, his untiring energy. He Avas in the front rank of the 
reformers, and, by unanimous consent, their chief. The lists were open, the 
champions Avere ready ; the battle that was to decide the fate of the kingdom Avas 
about to be fought out before Europe. 

The diet Avas opened v/ith splendour and solemnity. The Avhole of the imperial 
family Avere there — the king, the queen, the heir presumptive, and all hiss sons. 



KOSSUTH IN THE DIET. 315 

They answered the addresses presented to them in Magyar, and Avith great 
show of cordiality. The Hungarians were delighted, and even the reformers were 
thrown off their guard. The archduke Joseph had just died. The archduke 
Stephen, who had been governor of Bohemia, an honest, well-meaning, but timid 
man, who was completely under the influence of Metternich, was imanim.ously 
elected to fill his place. Thus far the court party were triumphant. They had 
been floating along upon the tide of enthusiasm, which their fine speeches and 
protestations had raised. The chambers now began to recollect themselves, and 
look at things calmly. When the motion for an address to the throne came on 
for discussion, the Croats and conservative' members wished to confine themselves 
to the reiteration of stereotyped compliments ; but the liberals, irritated by a 
recent act of the chancellor displacing the old counts, and substituting adminis- 
trators in direct dependence on the court, and thus annihilating the municipal 
independence of the counties, and v/ishing to repair the reverses of the previous 
session, drew up an address, in which all their grievances were set forth in firm 
but respectful language. It passed the lower house ; the magnates rejected it. 
It was placed on the journals of the chamber of deputies, and the royal 
address remained unnoticed. The first blow was struck ; the revolution had 
begun. 

To say that Kossuth v/as the main cause of this bold step, is almost superfluous. 
The influence which this extraordinarj^ man now exercised in the chamber Avas 
marvellous beyond m.easure, and certainly has no parallel in parliamentary history 
As he surpassed all others in information, research, knowledge of the country, 
familiarity with details, historical lore, acquaintance with the policy, government, 
and institutions of foreign nations, and particularly of England, so also he 
far surpassed them all in command of language. His statements of facts Avere 
clear, lucid, and Avell- arranged ; his argumentation Avas logical and Avell-linked ; 
and all his appeals to the feelings Avere utterly irresistible. There Avas no branch 
of oratory to Avhich his tongue did not lend an additional charm; there was no 
chord in the national heart Avhich he did not touch Avith a master hand. His skill 
in debate Avas matchless. The old nobles Avho deliberated, their sabres at their 
side, after the manner of their forefathers, and Avith as foAV Avords as if they Avere 
in a council of Avar — and these fcAV in Latin— Avere astonished at the volubility of 
the dexterous polemic Avho reproached, encouraged, refuted, or Avarned them 
in a torrent of Magyar, every Avord seeming to burn as it fell. Nor Avas he 
open to the im.putation so often cast upon parliamentary men Avhile in opposi- 
tion — of fertility in objections and accusations, and utter Avant of the poAver of 
originating or executing. He never pointed out an end Avithout pointing out the 
means as Avell, and that Avith a clearness and minuteness AA^hich left no doubt of 
its practicability ; he never unveiled a defect Avithout holding up the remedy. 
The appearance of such a man as this in the diet AA'as a startling event for the 
conservatives. To combat him in the chamber Avas useless. It looked foolish to 
oppose his reforms Avithout stating reasons. There AA'as nothing for it but to 



316 HISTOKY OF HUNGAIIY. 

appeal to prejudices, to stir up bad passions, to rouse slumbering antipathies ; and 
upon this course they entered ; but this led to the battle-field. 

There were three parties in the diet — the conservative party, composed of 
hangers-on of the court, devotedly attached to Austria and to the old order of 
things ; the progressionists, who aimed at moderate reform, the abolition of glaring 
abuses, and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy upon the model of that 
of England ; the socialist radicals or democrats, very similar to their brethren in 
France, who desired a total overthrow of everything, and a remodeling of society 
upon a new basis. Kossuth belonged to the second, perhaps we should rather say 
to an extreme section of the second, for he was in advance of Szechenyi, and many 
others whose claims to the character of reformers were undoubted. He wanted 
their caution, their respect for vested rights even when those rights were, in 
realitj', based upon wrongs. We can hardly condemn them, for precipitation 
in revolutions is full of danger. This will explain Kossuth's position with 
regard to the aristocracy. The wealthy magnates hated him as the destroyer of 
their odious exactions and iniquitous privileges. Are we wrong in concluding that 
some portion of the antipathy which has blackened his character at the Schoen- 
brunn and in the salons of Vienna has followed him to England, and continues 
to slander him in the fashionable coteries of Belgravia r Szechenyi's party filled 
the colleges and drawing rooms ; they were the party of prudence, of compro- 
mise — the whig party in short. Kossuth's adherents, on the contrary, were at the 
plough, in the workshops and factories, in the streets. They were the people who 
bad suffered and toiled for a thousand years, and who were now dreaming of a 
reign of equal rights, of protected industry, of pvire justice. They Avere the 
democrats, including under that designation all those whose hopes and sympathies 
were not bound up in a party or a class, but looked for the welfare and progress 
of humanity, without dis'tinction of classes, as the goal of their striving. To what 
political party in England shall we liken these ? We dare not say. 

The question of the official language was now again introduced, and the 
old scenes enacted over again. The Croat deputies were strenuous in their 
opposition. One of them, however, rose in his place, and explained that there 
were two parties in Croatia — one the constitutional, which was disposed to 
adhere to Hungary, and carry out her reforms ; the other, the party of the 
government, calling itself " the Illyrian conservative," and declaring that it sought 
the establishment of an independent Sclave nationality ; but its true character was 
explained by the fact, that it had expelled the Magyar Croats of the former from 
the election hall at Zagabria, v/ho were thus prevented sending their representatives 
to Pesth.* However, an act was carried in both chambers,! which ordained the 
exclusive use of the Magyar language in all branches of the administration, and in 

* Journal of the Hungarian Diet of 1847. 
t These have been literally transcribed from the " Pesthi Hirlap," of January andFebruary, 
1848, by M. Boldenyi, from whose able series of articles, in the "Revue des Deux Mondes," 
a great deal of information has been derived. 



THE OFFICTAL LANGUAGE AGAIX. 



317 







318 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

all legal documents, in the schools and colleges, except those for elementary 
instruction, with regard to Avhich the managing authorities of the district were 
left to exercise their discretion. Croatia was allowed to continue the use of the 
Latin in the transaction of her internal affairs ; but in all communications with 
the Hungarian authorities, the Magyar was made indispensable ; and the same 
indulgence was granted to the provinces bordering on the Adriatic — Italian being 
substituted for Latin. The clause regarding the schools was modified also with 
r.egard to the Sclave provinces, instruction only, in Magyar being made requisite. 
The Magyar was not to be introduced into the Sclave counties in Hungary 
till six years had elapsed ; so that all the officials might be prepared for the 
change. 

The question of equality of taxation was again under consideration, when, on 
the 4th of March, the news of the Parisian revolution fell among the deputies like 
a thunder-clap. When it arrived, the lower house was engaged in discussing the 
state of the monetary system. Owing to the ignorance and extravagance of the 
imperial financiers, their bank notes Avere at a discount, and in many parts 
of Hungary and Bohemia Avere refused altogether. The greatest confusion 
prevailed ; the business operations of the country were at a stand-still. A motion 
for inquiry was made by one of the members for Raab. Kossuth rose to speak 
upon it, amidst profound silence. The diet was powerfully impressed by the 
news from France ; every one felt that a crisis Avas at hand. He declared his 
entire concurrence in the motion before the house, but thought that it Avas trifling 
to deal Avith questions of this sort, when interests so much Aveightier Avere at 
stake ; it Avas useless noAv to inquire into the state of the bank ; Avhat they 
wanted Avas a separate finance minister and financial administration for Hungary ; 
the total destruction of the bureaucratical system of Vienna ; the establishment of 
the constitution upon a firm basis ; a ministry responsible to the people ; and, 
that their oAvn liberties might be safe, he declared it to be their duty to see that 
the same institutions prevailed in all parts of the Austrian dominions ; for it Avas 
a folly to suppose that he Avho was an absolute monarch in Vienna Avould reign as 
a constitutional king at Presburg. He concluded by moving an address to the 
throne, urging upon the government the adoption of certain measures of reform, 
amongst others : " The emancipation of the country from feudal burdens, the 
proprietors of the soil to be indemnified by the state ; the equalization of taxation ; 
the faithful administration of the revenue to be satisfactorily guaranteed ; the 
further development of the representative system ; and the establishment of a 
government representing the opinions of, and responsible to the people." The 
speech produced a profound sensation, and the motion Avas carried unanimously. 
What Kossuth aimed at Avas a free confederated empire, a scheme Avhich, 
had it been carried out, Avould have given the Hapsburgs a ncAV lease of their 
throne. 

For the present, all Avent Avell. The Viennese united in demanding reform. 
Metternich fled to England ; the emperor Avas terrified. A royal decree granted 



THE REFORMS OF ]MAIICH, 1848. 319 

trial by jury, the freedom of tlie press, tlie publicity of the proceedings in the law 
courts, and promised a representative constitution. When this news reached Pres- 
burg, the diet resolved to send a deputation to Vienna to lay their demands before 
the emperor, and solicit compliance with them. Kossuth was appointed to head it. 
Ferdinand was in too great danger to hesitate. The archduke Stephen, the 
palatine, was appointed viceroy of Hungary ; he commissioned count Louis 
Batthyanyi to form a ministry. He framed it as follows ; — 

Louis Batthyanyi, president of the council ; Bartholomew Szemere, minister of 
the interior; Francis Deak, minister of justice; Prince Paul Esterhazy, minister 
for foreign affairs ; Louis Kossuth, minister of finance ; Count Szechenyi, minister 
of public works ; Baron Eotveos, minister of public instruction ; Colonel Lazarus 
Meszaros, minister of war ; and Gabriel Klauzal, minister of commerce. 

The list was sent to Vienna for the royal confirmation. The emperor hesitated ; 
it seemed too democratic by far. Kossuth's name was in itself a bugbear. But 
the people were excited. Every throne in Europe was rocking like a child's 
cradle. ' This Avas no time for delay. The confirmation was granted, and the 
work of reform went on. The task which the diet now took upon itself was one 
of the noblest that ever engaged the attention of any legislature. Amidst all the 
crimes, and outrages, and errors, and short-comings which blot the page of 
history, the acts of this assembly will stand out in high and consoling relief, a 
finger-post on the road to a holier and brighter future. Lest it should be 
supposed that we exaggerate the results of their labours, we shall quote the words 
of one whose testimony in such a case is certainly not open to doubt : — 

" By unanimous votes of both houses, the diet not only established perfect 
equality of civil rights and public burdens amongst all classes, denominations, and 
races in Hungary and its provinces, and perfect toleration for every form of 
religious Avorship, but with a generosity perhaps unparalleled in the history of 
nations, and which must extort the admiration even of those v/ho may question 
the wisdom of the measure, the nobles of Hungary abolished their own right to 
exact either labour or produce in return for the lands held by urbarial tenure, and 
thus transferred to the peasants the absolute ownership, free and for ever, of 
nearly half the cultivated land in the kingdom, reserving to the original proprie- 
tors of the soil such compensation as the government might award from the public 
funds of Hungary. More than five hundred thousand peasant families Avere thus 
invested Avith the absolute OAvnership of from thirty to sixty acres of land each, or 
about twenty millions of acres amongst them. The elective franchise Avas 
extended to every man possessed of capital or property to the value of thirty 
pounds, or an annual income of ten pounds — to every man Avho has received a 
diploma from a university, and to every artisan Avho employs an apprentice. With 
the concurrence of both countries, Hungary and Transylvania were united, and 
their diets, hitherto separate, Avere incorporated. The number of representatives 
which Croatia Avas to send to the diet Avas increased from three to eighteen, Avhile 
the internal institutions of that province remained unchanged, and Hungary 



320 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

undertook to compensate the proprietors for the lands surrendered to the peasants 
to an extent greatly exceeding the proportion of that burden which would fall on 
the public funds of the province. The complaints of the Croats, that the Magyars 
desired to impose their own language upon the Sclavonic population, were 
considered, and every reasonable ground of complaint removed. Corresponding 
advantages were extended to the other Sclavonic tribes, and the fundamental 
laws of the kingdom, except in so far as they Avere modified by these acts, 
remained unchanged."* 

These measures passed the two houses on the 24th of March, and received the 
royal assent on the 24th of the same month. 

The work of reform was accomplished, but the troubles were not yet over. 
The south and west .of Hungary were in arms. When the empire began to totter, 
all the wronged and outraged races of which it was composed roused themselves, 
and, in the first delirium of freedom, sought to fling off all control. Lombardy 
and Venice flew to arms, and dreamed of restoring their ancient glory ; Croatia 
sought to erect a separate nationality, and so did Servia. In the latter, the 
patriarch of the Greek church, a man Avholly under the influence of Russia, con- 
voked an assembly at Carlowitz, which opened up negotiations with Austria as a 
sovereign state. The Viennese cabinet, through fear of Hungary, at first held 
aloof; but when Croatia advanced the same pretensions, she hesitated no longer, 
but stirred the Serbs into open hostilities. The atrocities which followed were 
frightful. A war of ambuscades, of night attacks, of knives, and merciless 
butchery of women and children, broke out between the peasantry of the two 
countries, and turned a large tract of country between the Danube and the Teyss 
into a hoAvling waste. Houses were burnt, property destroyed, and quarter 
refused to the unarmed and defenceless, as if savages, and not Christians and 
neighbours, were at enmity. Scenes of carnage were enacted which have never 
been described in print, and which never will be described, but which have left 
terrible memories behind them, and will live for centuries in the traditions of 
the people. 

In Croatia the Austrian agents were hardly less successful. A diet was con- 
voked at Czagabria, by Baron Joseph Jellachich, which refused to accept the 
new electoral law, and spreading terror over the province, prevented the Croat 
deputies from attending the Magyar diet. The hordes of the military frontiers 
assembled in arms, the peasantry rose on every side, and putting themselves under 
the command of Jellachich, who until then had been a subaltern officer, but on 
whom the emperor now conferred the title of han, or viceroy, declared their 
intention of marching to assist Ferdinand against his enemies. Their leader 
was in close communication with the archduchess Sophia, and thus became the 
soldier of the camarilla. Instigated by it, he did not hesitate to break off all re- 
lations with the diet and commence hostilities. 

« In July, 1848, the diet resumed its sittings, for the purpose of making prepa- 

* Alison. 



KOSSUTH S SPEECH. 



321 



rations to meet tlie crisis. They met at Pesth, instead of Presburg, which was 
too near the Austrian frontier to be a safe place for deliberations. On the 11th 
Kossuth roKe in his place, and addressed the house in reference to the Croat 
aggression, and the posture of affairs generally. After a passionate appeal to 
their patriotism, and exhorting them in a strain of the highest eloquence to meet 
the dangers that threatened them by courage and unanimity, he continued : — 
" Since the reign of Arpad, Hungary has enjoyed no right which she has not 
shared fraternally with the Croats ; and not content with sharing, more than once 




BARON JELLACHICH. 



she has accorded them privileges at her own cost. I read in the history of Ireland 
that England despoiled that country of certain political rights ; the Hungarians 
alone have conceded to a small province more than they themselves possessed. 
What then is the cause of this revolt ? We look for it in vain. Has the last diet 
wrought any change in our relations ? On the contrary, it has opened up a new era 
for us all. We have Avon new rights for ourselves and for the Croats also. They 
enjoy the same liberties as we Magyars. The Hungarian nobility has become 
responsible for the indemnity due for the abolition of the urbarial dues. Besides 

z 



322 HISTOK.Y OF HUNGARY. 

all this, the last diet has declared that the Croats have the right of using their 
own language amongst themselves and in their counties ; it has extended their 
municipal privileges. Is there a nobler privilege than that of regulating the 
election of representatives to provide in parliament assembled for the liberty 
and safety of the nation ? Well, the last diet has said to our brothers of Croatia, 
' Organize your elections, and name your representatives.' By this even the last diet 
has consolidated the municipal independence of Croatia. There are then no causes" 
for this revolt in the past ; certainly there are none in the present. * ^^ ' "''- 
The diet has decreed that the Croats shall be perfectly free to use their own 
language in the internal administration of the counties, and in their official 
documents ; but let them at least eonsent to receive all communications emanating 
henceforth from the ministry arid the Hungarian counties in Magyar, and 
accompanied by a Sclave translation," He then explained the importance attached 
by the Croats to the dignity of their ban, €»r governor, and continued: — "Never- 
theless, the ministry has not hesitated to invite this insurgent ban to take a seat 
at the council board to deliberate in concert with the members upon the best 
means of pacifying Croatia. "* ^'^ ^'' * We are ready, I ^gepeat, to satisfy all 
the just demands of the Croats, but we will never put M. Jellachich on a level 
with the king of Hungary. The king can pardon ; it is the duty of Jellachich to 
obey. We declare, therefore, that the only mean of settling the differences 
between the Croats and the Hungarian crown is to humbly pray his majesty 
to act as mediator, by ordering the Croats to convoke their provincial diet_ 
There all opinions can be openly declared, the elections freely conducted ; and 
deputies lawfully chosen will repair to the central Hungarian diet. They will 
there set forth the wishes of the Croats. If these wants are founded in justice, 
we pledge ourselves that the nation shall do right in the matter ; if not, we 
pledge ourselves to resign. 

" Of their nationality I have already spoken. Concerning its official duties, 
the cabinet, from the very outset, selected a number of individuals from the 
provinces, without making any party distinction — nay, for the Croatian aff"airs it 
has, in various branches of the administration, formed distinct sections, which are 
not yet filled up, because the tie between us has been forcibly torn. 

" If a people thinks the liberty it possesses too limited, and takes up arms to 
conquer more, it certainly plays a doubtful game — for a sword has two edges. 
Still I can understand it. But if a people says. Your liberty is too much for me, 
I will not have it if you give it me, but I will go and bow imder the old yoke of' 
Absolutism — that is a thing which I endeavour in vain to understand." 

He then went into details as to the force at the disposal of the government for 
the defence of the country, declared that a levy of two hundred thouss,nd men 
was necessary, and for this purpose demanded a vote of 12,000,000 of florins, 
The chamber, excited by his eloquence, rose up and exclaimed with one voice, 
" We give it, we give it ! Liberty or Death !" " You," exclaimed Kossuth, 
overpowered by this display of patriotic fervour, " you have risen to a man ; T 



CONFERENCE AT VIENNA. 323 

bow before the greatness of the nation. If your energy equals your patriotism, 
I will make bold to say that Hell itself cannot prevail against Hungary !" 

The king had issued a manifesto disavoAving the acts of the ban, declaring him 
a rebel, and a traitor and outlaw. Shortly afterwards he was summoned to 
Vienna, ostensibly to give an account of himself, in reality to take counsel with the 
camarilla. For several days the rebel, traitor, and outlaw might be seen passing 
in and out of the royal apartments at Innspruck, where he had several secret 
interviews with Ferdinand himself, and, to the astonishment and indignation of 
the Magyars, was sent back to his post with several marks of royal favour. Orders 
were given that a conference should be held to arrange the differences of the 
Croats and Magyars, but it was well known that no reconciliation would be 
effected. Batthyanyi met the ban at court, and during an interview endeavoured 
to learn from him the precise nature of the grievances of which he and his 
countrymen complained. But Jellachich refused to treat. " We shall meet again 
on the banks of the Drave," said the Magyar in parting. " No," was the reply, 
" I shall seek you on the banks of the Danube." 



z 2 



CHAPTER XXII, 



THE WAK OF INDEPENDENCE. 



1848-49. 

On his return Jellachicli took the command of all the imperial forces in Croatia 
and Sclavonia, amounting in all to fifty-four thousand men, who received supplies 





LAKE BALATON. 



of arms and ammunition secretly from Vienna. The Serbs and the Sclavonians 
of the north were also stirred up into insurrection by the emissaries of Austria. 
The situation was alarming ; the deputation demanded a last interview with the 
emperor, for the purpose of calling his attention to the threatening aspect of 
affairs, and reminding him that Hungary was as much entitled to his protection as 



JELLACHICH CROSSES THE DRAVE. 



1325 



any portion of his dominions, and that his true policy lay not in exciting on race 
against race, but in endeavouring to reconcile the interests of all, and calling on 



:• 






■m 



III,, :|gp 







him to restrain the Croats. They received an evasive answer, left the palace, 
stuck red feathers in their caps, and abruptly started homewards. The war had 
begun. 

On the 9th of September, Jellachich crossed the Drave at the head of his 



326 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 



hordes of marauders, banditti, and half-savage irregulars from the frontiers, and 
began to commit the most horrible outrages on the line of his march. On the 
15th the news reached Pesth, and produced an indescribable sensation. The 
ministry had resigned, and Count Batthyanyi announced to the assembled diet 
that the commander of the Hungarian troops. Count Adam Teleld, had surrendered 
to Jellachich without striking a blow, on the ground, that having sworn 
fidelity to the same flag, he could not with a good conscience bear arms against 
him. The weaker spirits in the diet were utterly paralyzed by this accumulation 
of misfortunes ; Kossuth and Batthyanyi were alone cool and collected. The latter 
w.as requested to form a new ministry, and difficult as the task was, considering 
the relations which existed between the diet and the court, he did not decline it. 
But in thp meantime he requested the archduke Stephen, the palatine, to take the 
command of the forces for the defence of the country against the Croats, and sent 
another deputation to Vienna, but this time to the Austrian" assembly which was 
sitting in the capital. The Sclavonic element, however, preponderated so largely 
in that body, that a hearing was refused them by a majority of 186 to 108 votes. 
Such were the disastrous consequences of the fell dissensions between the various 
rapes of the empire. 

The archduke, a moderate, conscientious, and highminded man, who in reality 
had the interest of the country sincerely at heart, at least as much as an Hapsburg 
could have it, and who saw with horror the terrible danger which was now 
impending, hastened to obey the instructions of the diet, and set out for the camp 
accompanied by three civil commissioners. He found the army in the neigh- 
bourhood of Lake Balaton, abandoned by its general and face to face with the 
enemy. The archduke demanded an interview with Jellachich on the lake ; but 
the latter, after some hesitation, refused to grant it. Stephen was terrified when 
he found hostilities inevitable, and judged that it was time for him to retire from 
a contest in which his family affection and his political sympathies would be per- 
petually coming into collision. A mediator he might be, but a partisan never; 
and when he found himself surrounded by circumstances which he had neither the 
courage nor the intellect to master, he wisely determined to withdraw from the 
stage altogether. Resigning the command, therefore, to general Moga, he took 
refuge on his maternal estates in Germany, where he remained a silent, and, 
w^e would hope, not unsympathizing spectator of the misfortunes which after, 
wards befel Hungary. The diet now resolved to abandon all half measures, and 
push matters to extremities. To retreat, even had they desired it, was no longer 
possible ; the populace was wrought up to the highest pitch of excitement by the 
unceremonious dismissal of the Magyar deputation by the Austrian assembly, and 
by the accounts which were daily coming in of the atrocities perpetrated upon the 
unoffending peasantry. Louis Batthyanyi laid down the powers ^vith which he 
had been invested, and a Committee of National Defence was elected on the 25th 
of September, with Kossuth as its president ; and to it was committed the duty 
of taking the measures necessary for the public safety. On the 22nd, however, 



BATTLE OF SUKORO. 



337 



the court had thrown . aside the mask, and added fresh fuel to the flame of 
discontent by the issue of two proclamations, one addressed to the people 
and the other to the troops ; in the former the conduct of the liberals was 
denounced in strong terms, and the latter appointed Count Lamberg com- 
mander-in-chief of the army, and called upon Louis Batthyanyi to countersign 
his appointment. 

The proclamations had no sooner appeared than they were torn down and 
trampled under foot ; and when Coiint Lamberg arrived in Pesth for the purpose 
of entering on his new office, he was dragged from his carriage when crossing the 
bridge, and brutally murdered by a mob led on by some students. Batthyanyi, 
on hearing of this, resigned office, and made a last appeal to the emperor, in the 
hope of inducing him to withdraw his unconstitutional decrees. His efforts were 
vain ; Jellachich resumed his march ; and Batthyanyi resolved to arm his retainers 
and take the field, but being disabled by a fall, he was prevented from carry- 
ing out his intentions, and was thus unhappily reserved for a more ignoble fate. 
Upon his resignation, the emperor entrusted an old soldier named Adam Recsei, 
a Hungarian, but a devoted adherent of Austria, with the formation of a new 
ministry, and at- the same time another proclamation appeared, dissolving the 
diet, and appointing Baron Jellachich commissioner-plenipotentiary in Hungary, 
with the command of all the forces of the kingdom. This was virtually a declara- 
tion of Avar. Jellachich instantly advanced, and the Magyars rushed to arms from 
every part of the kingdom, unofficered and unorganised, and armed only with 
scythes, pitchforks, or bad muskets, but burning with enthusiasm. The two 
armies met on the 29th, near Sukoro, the Croats numbering about 50,000, and 
the Magyars, under general Moga, not more than 5,000. The battle was long 
and bloody, the old antipathies of race and religion combining with the animosity 
arising out of the recent events to lend new fury to the combatants. After a sharp 
and determined fire, maintained with equal vigour on both sides, Jellachich's 
cavalry was driven into the marsh of Velencze, and the remainder of his force 
gave vfdij before a charge of the whole Hungarian line, and retreated. Moga was 
foolish or prudent enough to restrain the ardour of his troops, and thus, in all 
likelihood, lost the opportunity of administering a coup de grace to Jellachich's 
scattered army. The latter requested an armistice of three days, which was 
granted, but, in direct breach of his agreement, abandoned his position in the 
night, and fled towards Vienna. 

Before he reached it, a revolution had taken place Avithin the Avails. The 
recent events in Hungary had produced a profound sensation amongst the populace, 
who deeply sympathized Avith the Magyars in their resistance to the tyranny of 
the court, under Avhich they too Avere groaning. Republican principles had been 
long making way amongst the educated classes, the students, and professional 
men,, and the outbreak in Paris. had roused them into action. The citizens rose 
in arms ; the troops gave Avay ; the minister of war. Count Latour, Avas hanged' 
from a lamp-post; and the emperor fled, leaving the city in the hands of the 



328 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 



insurgents. The constituent assembly had declared itself en permanence, there were 
barricades in the streets, and the people were armed, when Jellachich arrived before 
the gates, with the Hungarians thundering in his rear. An alliance was speedily- 
entered into between the assembly and the diet. Their crime, if it was a crime 




PKIIsCE WIXDISCHGKATZ. 



was the same ; their strength lay in their resistance to arbitrary power. But never 
were the terrible effects which despotism produces in paralyzing a people's ener- 
gies, depriving them of decision of character, and of the power of concentration 
in the presence of great emergencies, more fully displayed than in the case of 



THE REVOLUTION AT VIENNA. 



329 



these Viennese insurgents. ' In theorizing, in agitating, in resisting, they were 
everything that could be desired ; but in victory they were divided, wavering, 
uncertain, as if astounded at their own success. In consequence of never having 
had any ' share in the government of the country, they were totally devoid of 
political education ; they had got rid of their tyrants, but could not supply their 
place — like a mutinous crew who have risen against the cruelties of the captain, but 
knowing nothing of navigation, find themselves drifting at the mercy of the winds 
and waves. They deliberated, procrastinated — to-day deciding in one way, 
to-morrow in another — till the prince Windischgratz, the imperial general, had 




EXECUTION OF COUNT ZICHY, 



time to collect a large force, and effect a junction with Jellachich under the walls 
of the city. Bem, an old Polish officer of great skill and courage, who had served 
with distinction in the armies of Napoleon in 1812 and 1813, and who longed to 
strike another blow against his ancient enemies ere he died, had made his way 
into the city, and offered his sword to the assembly. General Klapka, a Hun- 
garian, had followed his example ; and under these two officers the fortifications 
were strengthened, the national guard organized, and everything done that time 
and circumstances would allow for the defence of the place. In the meantime, 
the Hungarians were waiting eagerly for the signal from the Viennese to advance 



330 



HISTORY OF HUNGAUY. 



to their relief. They feared to cross the frontier upon their own responsibility, 
lest it should be thought that their object was one of aggression rather than of 
self-defence. These punctilious scruples proved the ruin of the Austrian insur- 
gents. The latter squabbled ; the Hungarians tarried ; and when at last Kossuth 
gave the order to general Moga to advance upon Schvechet, "Windischgratz and 
Jellachich were found combined in overwhelming strength, and raining shot and 
shell upon the beleaguered city. The Magyar army did not number in all more 
than twenty thousand men, and most of these were peasants, armed with scythes, 
who had never seen the face of an enemy in battle array before. Their approach, 
however, lent new. courage to the besieged, who fought under Bem's orders with 
determined courage. Windischgratz divided his forces ; one half kept up the 
conflict with the Viennese, while the other faced about and attacked the Hun:, 
garians. The latter, notwithstanding the vast disparity which existed between 
them and their assailants in point of numbers as well as of discipline, did not 
decline the combat. Fortunately, Kossuth was at this time present with the 
army in person, as general Moga, an old imperialist officer, refused to go into 
action against his former comrades, and the command was consequently 
bestowed upon Colonel Goergey. The battle was long and bloody, but the 
Viennese, having already sustained a siege of twenty days, were forced to 
surrender, and the full strength of the Austrian artillery having been turned 
against the Magyars, they, too, gave way and fell back in good order behind the 
Lajta. 

This check, however, was counterbalanced by some successes obtained over a 
division of Jellachich's army under Roth and PhillippoAdcs, Avhich had been 
detached for the purpose of invading the southern counties of Hungaiy. Casimir 
Batthyanyi and Manuel Perczel were sent off" in pursuit of them at the head of a 
body of the national guard, and owing to the skilful manoeuvring of Colonel 
Arthur Goergey, whose great talents now became fully apparent, the Croats were 
surrounded and compelled to lay down their arms. The common soldiers 
were sent back to their homes, and the officers set at liberty on parole. A 
Hungarian magnate, named Zichy, was found to have been in communication 
with Jellachich, and to have been one of the principal instigators of this move- 
ment. He Avas arrested, and some of the Ban's proclamations having been found 
in his possession, he was tried by a court-martial, of which Goergey Avas president, 
and. condemned to death. He was hanged forthwith. 

After the surrender of Vienna, there was a suspension of hostilities for nearl)- 
six weeks. The Austrian government was busily engaged in the Avork of 
butchering the unhappy rebels, a species of employment for which its army, 
has always shown itself better adapted than for conflict Avith a foreign foe. 
The history of its campaigns is but a list of defeats and disgraces ; it lays doAvn 
its arms to an armed enemy, and eagerly takes up the axe and the cord against 
its felloAV-countrymen, or the unfortunate peoples Avhom the arbitrary decrees 
of diplomatists have flung, bound and helpless, at its feet. The first victim 



PREPARATIONS FOR THE CAMPAIGN. 331 

selected in the Viennese massacres was Robert Blum, the bookseller, the most 
eloquent, gifted, generous, and enthusiastic of the German democrats. He was 
followed to the gallows by Jelovizki, one of Bern's aides-de-camp, a Polish officer 
of great abilities ; by Dr. Becher, an eminent writer ; by Messenhauser, who had 
headed the national guard ; and by a host of others of less note. The city was 
abandoned to the rage of the military, who were chagrined at their former defeat 
and pusillanimous flight ; and the inhabitants lived for weeks in a state of terrorism 
and suspense more horrible than the dangers of actual hostilities. Innocence was 
no shield, for the courts-martial seldom took the trouble to sift evidence. To be 
arrested was, in most cases, taken as ample proof of guilt. 

The court, however, did not suffer its attention to be distracted from the 
Hungarians by the horrors which were being enacted around it. The camarilla "• 
Avas resolved upon the final and complete rupture of the federal relationship 
existing between Hungary and Austria, and the absorption of the latter into the 
hereditary dominions of the crown. The archduchess Sophia was, therefore, 
moving heaven and eairth to induce her brother-in-law, the emperor, to rush into 
extremes, abolish the constitution, and reign by the power of the sword. Ferdi- 
nand was an old and silly man ; but he was superstitious — we can hardly, in his 
case, say conscientious — and feared to break the oath he had sworn . at his 
coronation. He demurred, expostulated, and finally flatly refused. The camarilla 
was baffled, but not defeated. It continued its exertions, and at last wearied out 
the poor do.tard's patience. To escape from his tormentors, he proposed to 
abdicate the throne in favour of his brother, the archduke Francis Charles. The 
latter declined the honour, and the crown was then placed on the head of his son, 
the a:rchduke Francis Joseph, still a mere boy. The preparations for war Avere 
now pursued in right earnest. From all parts of the empire contingents were 
collected for a imited and simultaneous attack. Hungary found herself in the 
midst of enemies. Geneyal Schlick threatened her on the north ; the revolted 
Serbs, and Wallacks, and Sclavonians on the south ; generals Hammerstein and 
Puchner, in Transylvania ; and prince Windischgratz, at the head of the main 
body of the Austro-Croat army, advanced on the side of Austria ; and the for- 
tresses of Arad and Temesvar were in the hands of the enemy. 

The diet, on their side, were not idle, though their position was unques- 
tionably full of peril. The only troops they had at command were a few 
battalions of volunteers, who had rushed into the field at the commencement 
of hostilities, without any preparation for active service beyond zeal and 
enthusiasm. Those in the north were headed by general Meszaros, while Perczel 
and Batthyanyi acted against the revolted Wallacks and Serbs. The main body 
of the army, not more than twenty thousand strong, was at Presburg, under the 

* A Spanish word, meaning " a little chamber." It is a sort of secret comicil, composed 
of the sovereign and the priests and intriguing ladies of the court, which has for a long time 
been part and parcel of the Austrian government. At the period of which we are writing, 
the principal members of it were the archduchess Sophia and Cibina. 



332 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY, 



command of Arthur Goergey, who was doing liis utmost to infuse discipline into it 
by daily drill and mancEuvring. 

We have mentioned the name of the fatal man of this momentous crisis. He 
was of noble family, and was still in the prime of life. His military career had 
been commenced in the Austrian army, but was soon disgusted by the shameless 
system of favouritism by which promotions were there regulated. When the war 
of independence broke out, he threw himself into the struggle, more with the 
desire of avenging the wounds his pride had received from his former masters, 
than from any feeling of' patriotism. He was cold, stern, inflexible, and under a 




KEFOKMED CHURCH AT DEBRECZIN, FROM WHICH THE DECLARATION OF 
INDEPENDENCE WAS ISSUED. 



demeanour of impassible calmness, concealed an ambition that devoured him like 
a fire. He was the very personification of war in its deadliest aspect — iron-willed, 
lion-hearted, prompt in decision, unflinching in execution, without elation in victory, 
without depression' in defeat. In a conflict like the present such a man would 
have been invaluable, had he been in possession of a conscience strong enough to 
curb the outburst of his bad passions. Goergey might have been a Washington — 
the only character which a successful soldier could assume in Hungary ; — he pre- 
ferred being a Napoleon, and met with Napoleon's fate— a speedy and unlamented 
downfal. He first brought his talents into display at the disastrous battle of 



PROTEST OF THE ROxMAN CATIIOIvIC BISHOPS. 



333 



Schvechet, by promptness, energy, and dauntless courage, where, as we have 
already stated, Kossuth made him commander on finding general Moga shrinking 
from the discharge of his duty. Had he looked upon the great contest, upon 
which he was now entering, with any other eyes than those of selfishness, 
fortune would, doubtless, have rewarded his valour, for never was there an in- 
stance in which the path of duty was more clearly the road to honour. 

The army was in want of arms, ammunition, and, in short, all the materiel 
of war. Kossuth proved himself the soul of the crisis. He travelled all over 




CATHEDRAL OF CASSAU- 



the country, set foundries to work to cast cannon, obtained supplies of sulphur 
from copper pyrites, and soon had several powder-mills in full activity ; 
opened contracts for the supply of uniforms and saddlery, planned financial secu- 
rities to meet the want of money, and organized an efficient commissariat. The 
catholic clergy, strange to say, on whose behalf the house of Hapsburg had been 
guilty of so much tyranny and violence in Hungary, this time raised their voices 
on the side of the right. The bishops met at Pesth, and joined in a solemn and 
eloquent protest against the attack which was now about to be made upon 
Hungarian liberty. 



334 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

On the sixteenth of December the main body of the Austrian army under 
Windischgratz crossed the Upper Danube ; Goergey was defeated in several 
encounters, and fell back upon Altenburg, and thence upon Buda, and finally- 
crossing the Danube, abandoned all his positions in succession, and retired behind 
the Teyss, acting upon the system of tactics long established in the Austro-Hun-- 
garian wars, which made the latter river a military line in cases of extremity. He 
had hoped to have effected a junction with Perczel, who was advancing from the 
Brave with 6,000 men, but the latter was overtaken by the Ban, who signally" 
defeated him. 

Another attempt was now made to open up the negociations and avoid further 
shedding of blood. A deiDutation, headed by Count Louis Bathyanyi, and com- 
posed of moderate men, waited upon Windischgratz in the hope of effecting some 
arrangement that would put an end to hostilities. Austria now had it in her 
power, by timely concessions, to secure her territory without the humiliation of 
calling in foreign aid. But the general, flushed with his recent successes, and in the 
full assurance that a handful of peasants could never make head against the trained 
battalions of the empire, sternly refused to treat with rebels, and arrested Bathyanyi. 
It is the misfortune of military men that they almost invariably over-estimate the 
resources of their art, and can never be taught to appreciate the tremendous force 
which lies sleeping in the mighty heart of a nation. Windischgratz, however, 
seemed to have exhausted his energy in the commission of this inexcusable piece 
of treachery. Instead of hurrying on towards the Teyss, he lingered at Pesth till 
the parliament had time to retire to Debreczin, in the centre of the Magyarland, 
where they held their sittings in the protestant church, and ■ arranged all their 
measures of defence. 

Bem organized an army of 10,000 men in Transylvania, and joining the 
Szeklers, by rapid manoeuvring drove out the Austrian and Russian auxiliaries, 
and subdued the revolted Wallacks, who aspired to form an independent state 
under the protectorate of Austria. Windischgratz still continuing the work of 
hanging in Pesth, Goergey entered into the northern counties, and fell upon the 
detached corps of the enemy with the rapidity of lightning. Twenty times 
Schlick and Goetz thought they had him in their grasp, but as often he eluded 
their pursuit, and appeared when least expected, to attack them in the flank or 
thunder tipon their rear. By a series of manoeuvres displaying the highest, 
military ability, he drove them to the foot of the Carpathian mountains, and 
re-occupied Cassau, the capital of Upper Hungary, where he established his 
head-quarters. 

; The Hungarian arms were not so successful in other quarters, however. The 
fortresses Leopoldburg and Eszek fell into the hands of the enemy, and they laid 
siege to Comorn and Petervaradin. Windischgratz having by this time wreaked his 
vengeance upon the inhabitants of Pesth, moved out of the town, with the view of 
efiecting a junction with Schlick, and bringing their united forces to bear upon 
Debreczin. Dembinski, an old Polish officer of Napoleon's Grand Armee, had at 



BATTLE OF TOKAY. 335 

this time been appointed to take the command-in -chief of the Hungarian forces: 
He sketched out a plan of operations, by which it was arranged that generals- 
Damianics and Klapka should take Szolnok, and, supported by Vetter, should 
hang upon the enemy's right wing, while Goergey received orders to leave Cassau 
and second the attack which Dembinski himself was about to make upon their 
centre at Kapolna. Windis-chgratz would thus have found himself outflanked, 
and his army would, in all probability, have been annihilated at one blow, if 
Goergey's selfish ambition had not disconcerted the whole scheme. He was- 
chagrined beyond measure at finding Dembinski placed Over his head, and was 
too selfish to stifle his resentment and act for the welfare of the country. A 
general engagement took place at Kapolna, and after a sanguinary encounter of 
six hours' duration, the Hungarians were defeated, owing to Goergey's positive 
refusal to obey orders.* Dembinski did not recover his reverse, but fell back 
hastily upon the Teyss, though Windischgratz showed no sign of advancing. He 
was superseded in the chief comm.and by General Vetter. 

Klapka. and Damianics, on the other hand, had executed the movement assigned 
to them with the most complete success. The Austrian division, Under Karger 
and Othinger, was utterly routed, with the loss of five hundred prisoners and a 
large quantity of military stores. Bern, as we have already said, was triumphant 
in Transylvania, Kaving defeated the combined Austrian and Russian forces 
against overwhelming odds ; divisions were breaking out beyond Windischgratz 
and Jellachich. Sickness, brought on by the marshes, was making havoc in the 
Austrian ranks. Klapka inflicted anotheji defeat upon them at Tokay. The 
star of Hungary was in the ascendant. On the fifth of April, it was found that 
the imperial army was entrenched in fall force at Jsaszeg, and the whole of the 
Hungarian forces were brought V!p to the attack. It was crowned with success. 
The impetuous charges of the huzzars swept away eight entire squares, and the 
Austrians fled, leaving six thousand men dead upon the field, and twelve hundred 
prisoners, and seven standards in the hands of the Magyars, who lost only two 
thousand men in killed and wounded. With this battle the demoralization of the 
Austrian army was complete. The m.en lost confidence in their officers, were 
decimated by marsh fever, and harassed in their retreat by the Csikos.f They 
were soon after driven out of Pesth and Comorn, and suff"ered a severe defeat af 
Nagy Sarlo, although General Welden had been sent to supersede poor Windisch- 
gratz, whose incapacity, save- for the office of striking terror into unarmed 



* After the battle Dembinski rode up to Goergey, and asked him what should be the 
punishment of an officer guilty of disobedience of "orders in the presence of the enemy. 
" Death!" was the stern reply. Dembinski, however, knowing him to be supported by a 
la^ge body of the army, did not dare to inflict the punishment which the traitor acknow- 
ledged that he deserved, and thus weakened his own authority in the eyes of the soldiers 
generally. 

t Shepherds of the plains armed with lassos, bearing leaden balls at the end, with which 
they struck with unerring aim. 






HISTORY OF IIUXGAllY. 



citizens, had been glaring enough since the commencement of the campaign. 
Jellachich gave up the contest in despair, and on leaving Pesth set out for 
Croatia at the head of his troops. 

It was now clear that Austria was beaten. The triumph of the revolutionary- 
party was complete. A few thousand undisciplined peasants had routed one of 
the largest and best drilled standing armies in Europe. Those who sneered at the 
military tactics of the Magyar generals in the earlier part of the war, were now 
loud in expressing their admiration. Austria was humiliated before Europe; 
but there was still a lower depth of degradation, and she plunged into it as her 




CSIKOS. 



only chance of safety. She called in foreign aid. Russia had been looking on at 
the whole struggle with rage and indignation. In each triumph of the Magyars 
she saw a blow struck at the absolutist system of which she was the head and 
front. She longed to interfere, not merely for the purpose of crushing the revolution, 
but that she might extend her influence over the Sclavonic subjects of Austria, 
and thus gain a step towards the great point of her ambition, the establishment of 
a mighty Sclave empire, of which Petersburgh should be the capital and the 
czar the spiritual as well as temporal head. She knew that if once Hungary 
were subdued by Russian soldiers, the moral influence of Austria amongst the 



THE POLICY OF NOX-INTERVENTION. 



337 



Sclave tribes was gone for ever. Nothing can save a government which maintains 
its authority by the aid of foreign armies. 

This was the stage in this straggle for the friends of freedom and representative 
government to have interfered also. There was nothing abnormal in such a 
proceeding. Hungary had been long recognized as an independent state by both 
the great western powers. Negotiations had, at different times, been conducted 
with her, separately and apart from Austria, by England as well as by France. 
When Lord John Russell stated, in the House of Commons, that we knew 
nothing of Hungary, diplomatically, except as a portion of the Austrian empire, he 
stated whut he knew to be untrue (which is impossible), or he was ignorant of what 




GENERALS BEM AND DEAIBIXSKI. 



it was his duty to have known. We go to the expense of keeping up large fleets 
and armies for the purpose of maintaining our influence on the continent, as well as 
of defending our commerce and possessions ; but when the time comes when 
that influence ought to be exercised for the benefit of humanity, we shrug our 
shoulders and look calmly on. Hungary was governed by representative institu- 
tions ; Hungary was disposed to be one of our largest customers, if she had the 
regulation of her own tariff; she was rising, vigorous, and intelligent. Politi- 
cally, commercially, morally, she was entitled to support. We refused it ; and 
when we did so, we allowed Russia, our great rival and bugbear, to take a step 
which she will never retrace — a step nearer to the dominion of eastern Europe: 

2 a 



338 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

from the Baltic to the Grecian Archipelago — a step which will ever reflect 
disgrace upon France and England, and is fraixght with danger and disaster to the 
best interests of the human race. For France there Was some excuse. She was 
then labouring in the throes of a revolution which paralyzed her energies ; but 
where was our boasted wisdom and foresight, if we could not, for the moment, 
turn a deaf ear to the teachings of those who can see no greater evil in life than 
the temporary disturbance of trade, and who would sacrifice the well-being of a 
hundred unborn generations, to save the living one from the losses a.nd vexations 
of a single campaign ? 

Negotiations were accordingly opened up with Russia for the assistance of a 
large body of troops, the expenses of which were to be defrayed by Austria. She 
had already furnished a small contingent, Avhich had been routed by Bem in 
Transylvania. She was now about to send her whole available force across the Car- 
pathians, and Europe was to behold the strange spectacle of two of the greatest 
military powers in the world ranging themselves in the field against a little nation 
whose whole male population Avas not, numerically, greatly superior to their 
trained armies. 

The young emperor, Francis Joseph, had, on ascending the throne, caused 
himself to be proclaimed king of Hungary, which was clearly illegal until his 
coronation, as the monarchy was, as we have often stated, essentially elective. Not 
only this, but he refused to be crowned or to take the requisite oaths, and spoke 
of Hungary as a rebellious country which he W5.s determined to subdue. This was, 
in point of fact, a declaration of wa,r, to which there was but one answer — an 
answer which every Magyar was bound by law to give — an appeal to arms. No 
allegiance was due by any Hungarian to any sovereign, till the diet had proclaimed 
him, and he had sworn to maintain the constitution. Many months having now 
elapsed, however, and the country having been driven to extremities by the 
armed forces of the pretender who called himself its king, the parliament resolved 
upon publishing a solemn protest against his claims, and upon destroying at a 
blow all those ties, created by custom or tradition, that might still have subsisted 
between Hungary and Austria. Accordingly, they issued the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, on the 14th of April, 1849. The following are some of the principal 
articles in this celebrated document : — 

DECLARATION RELATIVE TO THE SEPARATION OF HUNGARY 

FROM AUSTRIA. 
' " We, the legally constituted representatives of the Hungarian nation assembled in 
Diet, do by these presents solemnly proclaim, in maintenance of the inalienable natural 
rights of Hungary, with all its dependencies, to occupy the position of an independent 
European state — that the house of Hapsbm-g-Lorraine, as perjured in the sight of God 
and man, has forfeited its right to the Hungarian throne. At the same time, we feel 
ourselves bound in duty to make known the motives and reasons which have impelled us 
to this decision, that the civilised world may learn we have taken this step not out of 
overweening confidence in our own wisdom, or out of revolutionary excitement, but that 
it is an act of the last necessity, adopted to preserve from utter destruction a nation 
persecuted to the limit of the most enduring patience. 



THE DECIARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 339 

" Three hundred years have j)assed since the Hungarian nation, by free election, placed 
the house of Austria upon its throne, in accordance with stipulations made on both sides, 
and ratified by treaty. These three hundi'ed years have been, for the country, a period 
of uninterrupted suffering. 

" The Creator has blessed this country with all the elements of wealth and happiness. 
Its area of 100,000 square miles presents in varied profusion innumerable sources of 
prosperity. Its population, numbering nearly fifteen millions, feels the glow of youtliful 
strength witliin its veins, and has shown temper and docility which Avarrant its proving 
at once the main organ of civilisation in eastern Europe, and the guardian of that civili- 
sation when attacked. Never was a more grateful task appointed to a reigning dynasty 
by the dispensation of Providence than that which devolved upon the house of Hapsbm-g- 
Lorraine. It would haVe sufficed to do nothing that could impede, the development of 
the country. Had this been the rule observed, Hmigary would now rank amongst the 
most prosperous nations. It was only necessaiy that it should not envy the Hungarians 
the moderate share of constitutional liberty which they timidly maintained during the 
difficulties of a thousand years with rare fidelity to their sovereigns, and the house of 
Hapsburg might long have counted this nation amongst the most faithful adherents of 
the thi-one. 

" This dynasty, however, which can at no epoch point to a ruler who based his power 
on the freedom of the people, adopted a course towards this nation, from father to son, 
which deserves the appellation of perjury. 



" Confiding in the justice of an eternal God, we, in the face of the civilised world, in 
reliance upon the natm-al rights of the Hungarian nation, and upon the power it has 
developed to maintain them, fiu-ther impelled by that sense of duty which m-ges every 
nation to defend its existence, do hereby declare and proclaim, in the name of the nation 
legally represented by us, the following : — 

" 1st. Hungary, with Transylvania, as legally united with it and its dependencies, are 
hereby declared to constitute a free, independent, sovereign state. The territorial mrity 
of this state is declared to be inviolable, and its territory to be indivisible. 

" 2nd. The House of Hapsburg-Lorraine— having by treachery, pcrjm-y, and IcA'ying 
of war against the Hungarian nation, as Avell as by its outrageous violation of all com- 
pacts, in breaking up the integral territory of the kingdom, in the separation of Transyl- 
vania, Croatia, Sclavonia, Fiunie, and its districts, from Hungary — further, by compassing 
the destruction of the independence of the country by arms, and by calling in the 
disciplined army of a foreign power, for the purpose of annihilating its nationality, by 
violation both of the Pragmatic Sanction and of treaties concluded betAveen Austria and 
Hungary, on which the alliance between the tAvo countries depended — is, as treacherous 
and perjured, for ever excluded from the thi'one of the miited states of Hungary and 
Transyh'ania, and all their possessions and dependencies, and is hereby deprived of the 
ttyle and title, as well as of the armorial bearings belonging to the crown of Himgary, 
and declared to be banished for ever from the miited coimtries and their dependencies 
and possessions. They are therefore declared to be deposed, degraded, and banished for 
ever from the Hungarian territory. 

" 3rd. The Hmigarian nation, in the exercise of its rights and sovereign avHI, being 
determined to assume the position of a, free and independent state amongst the nations 
of Em-ope, declares it to be its intention to establish and maintain friendly and neigh- 
boiu'ly relations with those states with which it was formerly united tmder the same 
sovereign, as Avell as to contract alliances Avith all other nations. 

" 4th. The form of goA^ernment to be adopted for the futm-e avUI be fixed by the diet 
of the nation. 

2 A 2 




GENERALS OF THE HUNGARIAN ARMY IN THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 



VETTER. 
AULICH. 



GOERGEY. 
COUNT CASIMIR BATTHYANYI. 



GUYON. 
KLAPKA. 



342 HISTORY OF HUNGAHY. 

" And this resolution of oiu's we shall proclaim and make known to all the nations of 
the civilised world, with the conTiction that the Himgarian nation will be received by 
them, amongst the free and independent nations of the world, with the same friendship 
and free acknowledgment of its rights which the Hungarians jDroffer to othei- countries. 

" We also hereby proclaim and make kno^vii to all the inhabitants of the united states 
of Hungary and Transylvania, and theii- dependencies, that all authorities, communes, 
towns, and the civil officers both in the coimties and cities, are completely set free and 
released from all the obligations under which they stood, by oath or otherwise, to the 
said house of Hapsburg-Lorraine, and that any individual daring to contravene this 
decree, and by word or deed in any Avay to aid or abet any one violating it, shall be 
treated and punished as giiilty of high treason. And by the publication of this decree, 
we hereby bind and oblige all the inhabitants of these counties to obedience to the 
government now instituted formally, and endowed with all necessary legal powers. 

" DebreczINj Ai*KiL 14, 1849." 

Louis Kossuth was in the mean tinie appointed President-Governor. His first 
. care Avas to form a cabinet to aid him in the executive administration. Bartho- 
lomew Szemere was appointed president of the council ; count Casimir Batthyanyi, 
minister for foreign aiFairs ; Sebastian VukoritZj minister of justice ; and to 
Goergey was committed the superintendence of the war department. This 
done, a general consultation v/as held to decide upon the plan of future oj)erations. 
The enemy was in full retreat towards his own frontier — broken, disorganized, 
demoralized ; Buda alone was in his hands, and was defended by a strong garrison 
under general Henzi. Two courses were open to the patriots : the one, to march 
rapidly on Vienna, crush the flying remnant of the imperial army, and dictate 
conditions of peace under the walls of the capital ; the other, to re-capture Buda, 
restore the government to its legitimate seat, and, having thus ridded the soil of 
the presence of foreign troojDS, leave the subsequent operations of the war to be 
guided by circumstances. There can be scarcely any doubt that every member of 
the government saw the superiority of the former at a glance. The Austrian 
court lay at the mercy of the victors. Vienna was defenceless ; the inhabitants 
were notoriously disaffected ; once within its wallsj the destinies of the Hapsburgs 
were in the hands of the diet. By one of those strange pieces of fatuity, 
however, so trifling in themselves, so important in their results, it was 
resolved to leave Goergey complete master of his own movements, and allow him 
to adopt whatever measures to him seemed best. This decision was based upon a 
principle founded in wisdom, and Avhich has ever proved beneflcial in its applica- 
tion — that the general in the field is always the best judge of what ought to be 
done, and that any interference on the part of the civil authorities is apt to 
disconcert his best schem.es, and involves the total destruction of the vigorous and 
determined line of action which is necessary in the conduct of a campaign. Had 
Goergey been an honourable man, their decision had been a safe one ; as it was, 
it was the ruin of the cause. 

He wais gloating with exultation when he fbtmd himself commander-in-chief of 
the army aiid iriihiste3*-at-War. The^fondest desire of his heart was gratified ; his 
rivals were humbled, and the fortunes of the nation lay in his keeping. He was not 



STORMING OF BUDA. 343 

long in making his decision when the alternative was presented to him. He knew 
the pride and veneration with which the mass of the people and the army looked 
upon Buda. It was their Mecca, their Moscow, their Jerusalem — the holy city, hoary 
with age, and crowned with glorious reminiscences. It was considered a heavy 
blow, a great discouragement, when it was abandoned to the tender mercies of the 
Austrians in the earlier part of the war, and the peasantry looked with super- 
stitious longing for its rescue. It was not the duty of a general, however, to pander 
to prejudices of this sort, however amiable. Goergey v/as popular enough to 
disregard them, and to look solely to the result of the campaign. But such was 
hi% craving after applause, and his anxiety to render himself the hero of the crisis 
in the eyes of the least reflecting portion of the nation, that he thrust from him an 
opportunity of closing the campaign by a startling and brilliant coup de main, gave 
the enemy time to recover himself, and lost in a single Aveek all the advantages 
purchased by five splendid victories and six months of sanguinary warfare. He, 
accordingly, suffered general Welden to escape, and advanced upon Buda. Pesth, 
on the opposite side of the river, Avas in the hands of the Hungarians, under 
general Aulich, and the inhabitants were animated by the utmost enthusiasm in 
the national cause. 

Goergey summoned Henzi to surrender, but the latter, a brave old veteran, 
sternly refused, and commenced to bombard Pesth. The eloquence of Kossuth, the 
perilous position of the nation, the rumours of foreign intervention, had Avrought 
the excitement of the besiegers up to the highest pitch. The night of the sixteenth 
of May was fixed for the storming of the citadel. The strength of the fortifica- 
tions was aided by the commanding position which they occupied ; a slight breach 
had been efi'ected, but there Was no attempt at a regular siege, and in this one 
exploit alone Goergey showed in its true light the heartlessness of his ambition 
and the cool ferocity of his disposition, for he was about to throw away in a useless 
and sanguinary encounter as much valour and enthusiasm as ever mortal had at 
his command. 

General Aulich was ordered to force the Castle Gate and enter the park, and 
thence into j;he fortress ; and general Knezich the Vienna Gate and its bastions ; 
the other divisions were directed against the remainder of the assailable points. 
A pontoon bridge was thrown across the Danube for the purpose of making an 
attack upon the river side, and the troops advanced to the assault with great 
enthusiasm. 

After a despel'ate conflict protracted till dawn, the Hungarians were beaten ofi", 
and retired to their quarters after sufiering heavy loss, Goergey's pride was 
stung to the quick. What if he failed in this enterprise upon which his heart 
was so earnestly fixed, and for the achievement of which he had sacrificed so 
much substantial good ! After a short respite, he ordered another onslaught, and 
this time the honveds ascended the ladders with such fury that the ramparts were 
carried in a rush, and a terrible hand-to-hand fight ensued in the streets, 
General Henzi fell in the breach, and was only saved from instant death by 



344 



HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 



Goergey's interposition ; colonel Allnosh was blown up when attempting to spring 
a mine under the suspension-bridge. The loss on both sides was tremendous, but 
Buda was conquered.* 







f3ga55W^^ 



* The following proclamation was issued by Kossuth after the capture of the fortress :— 
" Praise to the holy name of God ! Praise to the heroes of the national army, who 
sacrifice their lives to the liberation of om- country ! 



STORMING OF BUDA. 



345 



Upon the receipt of the news at Debreczin, the joy was great. The diet voted 
the thanks of the country to Goergey and his army, and sent him the " Grand 



-i^la N 




" The fortress of Buda is in our hands ! 

" The government has received the following official report of this important event : — 

" ' Buda, 21st May, 5 o'clock, a.m. 
" ' The Hungarian colours are flying from the towers of Buda Castle! Thehonveds are 



346 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

Cross of the Hungarian Order of Military Merit." He coldly and almost con- 
temptuously declined it, stating that his principles did not allow him to accept 
such distinctions; that a passion for them was already arising amongst his officers, 
which he felt it his duty to repress by his example. The seat of government was 
once more transferred to Pesth, The enemy had no longer a footing in Hungary, 
but nevertheless the future was cloudy and ominous. 

The ministry had hardly returned to their old quarters, when word came that 
the Russian intervention was an accomplished fact. The news fell upon all with 
a shock Avhich at first almost stupiiied them, but on recovering every preparation 
was made for a desperate defence. The government solemnly protested against 
the unjust aggression of the czar, and their agents at the various European courts 
made strenuous but vain attempts to secure aid against this overwhelming 
calamity, if only for the sake of preserving the balance of power, as the very 
existence of the various German states Avas threatened by the advance of the 
Russian army* The Hungarian forces found themselves placed in a terrible 
position. They were evidently about to be enclosed in a wall of steel, and in the 
face of such odds valour itself seemed useless. On the north, General Prince 
Pasldevitz was advancing at the head of the main body of the Russian army ; on 
the north-west, General Grabbe appeared on the Moravian frontier with several 
divisions ; on the west, the Austrian army, under the ferocious Haynau— his 
hands still red with the slaughter of the unfortunate inhabitants of Brescia — was 

scaling the walls of the fortress on ladders ! The eilemy'a 24-potiJiders have hoisted the 
white flag. 

• " ' The first attack, which was commenced at midnight^ \vas directed against the 
Vienna gate. The caetle gate and the breach were attacked at one o'clock in the mornings 
and continued to the break of day. A nuu'derous fire was directed upon oiu- honveds, 
from the bastions, towers, and houses. Heavy stones were thi'own down upon them ; 
but their devoted courage overcame the resistance of the enemy. 

" ' The fii-e of the Austrian troops, though fierce and continuous, has done less execu- 
tion than might have teeeii expected. But at this moment a street fight is commencing, 
which is likely to lead to a great sacrifice of life. The enemy retreats fronx the bastions 
on the side of the Schwabenberg. One of their detachments holds out in a position near 
the "Wesseinbui'g gate. Through the breach the honveds pour into the fortress. The 
fire of artillery and musketry is already silenced in tlus part of the town, but strong 
discharges of small fire-arms are heard from the Pesth side of the fortress. 

" ' 6 o'clock 30m. A.M. 

" ' A powder magazine has exploded. The street fight still continues in the fortress. 

" ' 1 o'clock, AM. 
" ' The firing has ceased on all sides. Suda is conquered .'* 

"May the nation gather fresh coiu'age and enthusiasm from the example of this 
success ! May the combat which is still impending be short, and the Hberation of the 
country complete ! Peals of bells throughout the country proclaim the victory of Hun- 
garian arms. Pray to God, and thank him for the glory he has vouchsafed to grant the 
Hungarian army, whose heroic deeds have made it the bulwark of European liberty ! 
"Debreczin, 22nd May, 1849. 

" The Governor of the Commonwealth, 

"Louis Kossuth." 



BATTLE OF CSORNA. ' 347 

lying at Presburg, waiting to act on the offensive once more, supported by a 
Eussian force under Paniutine ; and Transylvania was threatened by two Russian 
corps d'armee, and the remnant of the Austrians who had been defeated by Bem, 
while the Wallacks were in insurrection, under the conduct of a bishop named 
Schoguna. They had been persuaded by Austrian agents that it was the intention 
of the Magyars to abolish the use of their language, and absorb their nationality 
into that of the dominant race. A war of extermination, similar to that carried 
on by the Serbs at the commencement of this unhappy struggle, instantly followed. 
The districts occupied by the Magyars were laid utterly waste ; the churches and 
dwellings were burnt; the growing crops destroyed; the women and children 
massacred without mercy. Bem once more resumed operations, and the uncon- 
querable old man attacked and routed a second time the force under Malkowski, 
with all the fire and energy of youth ; drove him across the Wallack frontier, and 
joined Peiczel under the walls of Temesvar, which the latter was besieging. 
Dembinski was encamped at Eperies and Cassau, with 10,000 men, and the 
troops under Goergey, which stormed Buda, occupied the banks of the Waag and 
the Upper Danube. Klapka resigned the secretaryship-at-war, and took the 
command of Comorn. Goergey retained his command after entering on his new 
office; and by establishing a sort of chancellery at head-quarters, managed to 
render himself totally independent of the rest of the government, and created a 
breach between himself and Kossuth which was never effectually healed. 

Such was the state of affairs in the early part of the month of June. Prompt, 
and energetic, and united action was absolutely necessary for the existence of the 
nation. Klapka and Goergey had agreed upon a plan of defence before the 
former resigned his post, the main feature of which was the making the 
strong fortress of Comorn the centre of all operations, the retention of the 
Upper Danube, and the adherence to a strictly defensive line of operations until 
the people could be levied and equipped^ en masse, and sweep the foreigners from 
the soil. With the small force that was then in a state of fitness for a contest on 
open ground against the vast hordes of the enemy, it was clearly madness to 
abandon a strong position and challenge him to a trial of strength. Gunpowder 
and arms were being manufactured, owing to the indefatigable exertions of Kossuth, 
with the utmost rapidity ; the peasantry were ready to rise to a man. The great 
point was to gain time without losing ground. Certainly the army that stormed 
Buda was sufficient to have captured Vienna, but how terribly were circum- 
stances changed since the commission of that fatal and irretrievable error. 

To this plan it was clear Goergey had no intention of adhering. To follow his 
own bent, and account for his actions to no one, and to distinguish himself by bril- 
liancy and daring, without regard to results. Was now clearly his object. Accord- 
ingly, on the 12th of June, the news having arrived that the Austrian forces, 
under general Wiss, had reached Csorna, the division, under Kmetty, was 
detached to attack them Avhen crossing the Raab. The latter came up with the 
enemy, after a forced march of thirteen hours, and after a murderous conflict, 



348 



HISTOJIY OF HUNGARY. 



totally defeated them, killing Wiss, though not without very severe loss. The 
various corps of the invaders were now gradually narrowing the circle within 
which the Hungarian army lay ; even Jellachich was lifting his head, and reap- 
peared in the field at the head of his Croats. To venture out before they disclosed 
their plan of operations, and before the national army was properly organized and 
concentrated, was the height of folly, or the deepest of treachery. Whichever it was, 
Goergey did not shrink from it, and descending into the marshy plains between the 
Waag and the Danube, engaged a vastly superior force at Zsigard, and was 
completely defeated. But never was the man's unflinching determination so 
conspicuous as in the midst of reverses. Collecting his troops, he prepared for 
another trial of strength almost upon the same ground, notwithstanding an earnest 
and affecting protest from Klapka, who implored him, as did also the government, 




PORTRESS OF BUDA BEFORE ITS CAPTURE BY GENERAL GOERGEY. 



at least, to effect a junction with other corps d'arm6e which were held in check in 
Lower Hungary, and if he would strike, strike on a grand scale. Advice and remon- 
strances were, however, alike disregarded ; and so great Avas his dislike to Kossuth 
and jealousy of his popularity, that all instructions coming from him were treated 
with great indifference, amounting to contempt. On the 20th, while in command 
of the troops at Aszod, an attack was made on the Austrian army by Colonel 
Ashboth, before Goergey had arrived on the ground. The cavalry was driven 
back on Pered, which was occupied by a large force of imperialists with two 
battalions of field artillery. Ashboth instantly commenced the attack with but 
two batteries, and was received with a storm of grape-shot, by which the Hun- 
garians were completely broken, and compelled to. give ground. Ashboth having 
assumed the responsibility of the movement, was driven to desperation, and by 



BATTLE OF llAAB. 



349 



great exertions succeeded in rallying and leading them back. A fierce hand-to- 
hand conflict in the streets then took place, and early in the afternoon the Austrians 
were dislodged and retreated towards Galantha. Just at this juiicture Goergey 
came up, removed Ashboth from his command for breach of his instructions ; and 
although the enemy had been reinforced by 15,000 Russians, and his own troops 
were exhausted by fatigue and hunger, he determined to renew the attack upon 
the following morning. After a sanguinary engagement he was driven in. 
succession out of Pered and Kiralyrev, but effected an orderly retreat to Aszod, 
with the loss of 2,500 men. Another action, at the latter place, ended in a 
dearly-bought victory for the Hungarians ; and the Austro-Russian forces. 




GENERAL HAYNAU. 



PEINCE PASKIEVITZ. 



amounting to 40,000, moved forward on Raab, then garrisoned by 6,000 men. 
Here the patriot army supported its ancient fame by a valiant defence, but was 
at length defeated with terrible slaughter, in spite of all Goergey's efforts, 
seconded by Klapka, who had reached the place on the day of the action. This 
was the crowning point in a series of disasters ; it was evident that the Hungarian 
forces were being cut off in detail, and Klapka hurried to Pesth to take 
council with the government as to the best course to be pursued under the circum- 
stances. All were of opinion that Goergey had acted recklessly, if not basely, by 
repeatedly disobeying the orders of the central government, and acting, so far as 



350 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

SO proud a man could do, under the advice and instruction of Colonel Bayer, an 
obstinate and crochetty man, whom he had placed at the head of his chancellery, 
and unanimously agreed to force upon him the abandonment of the operations on 
the Upper Danube, and the .concentration of the whole of the national forces upon 
the Teyss. When this was made known to Goergey he promised to obey, but, 
nevertheless, continued to follow up his own plans as before. There was evidently 
no alternative but to dismiss him, and this was resolved upon. Accordingly, 
immediately after Klapka's return to Comorn, a formal decree was issued by 
Kossuth on the first of July, removing Goergey from the chief command, and 
appointing Field-Marshal-Lieutenant Lazarus Meszaros to fill his place. But, 
unfortunately, in the meantime an event had occurred which rendered this 
measure a nullity. 

On the 2nd of July, the combined Austrian and Russian forces made an attempt 
to force the entrenched camp occupied by 22,000 Hungarians, which lay outside 
the fortress of Comorn. Instead of concentrating his whole force for the defence 
of Monostor. an elevatioii within the entrenchment, which commanded the Avhole 
of the neighbouring country, and which a handful of brave men might have held 
against a host, Goergey's unconquerable love of display induced him to attempt 
the protection of his whole line against the overwhelming numbers- of the assailants. 
The attack commenced at eight o'clock in the morning, and in the first onset the 
outworks were carried ; but the fortune of the day was restored by Goergey in 
person, who led the troops into action apparently Vyfithout the slightest regard for 
his personal safety, and with a hardihood that astonished even veteran soldiers. 
In the thickest of the fight, his calm, stern, and inflexible visage awed even 
cravens into valour, and inspired the bravest with renewed enthusiasm. Tlic 
enemy were driven back, but their left wing carried the village of Szony ; and at 
six in the evening, after a long and sanguinary combat, Haynau made a vigorous 
attack upon the Hungarian centre. His cavalry were engaged by the hussars, 
and a sharp fight followed, in which the infantry gradually joined ; and, after three 
hours of desperate combat, in which Goergey received a wound in the head, the 
village was recaptured, and the Austrians driven back to their former position. 
The loss of the Hungarians on this memorable day was upwards of tv/o thousand ; 
that of the Austrians was still greater. But it was a proud day for Goergey. His 
personal intrepidity and daring had made him doubly popular with the army, 
and when the despatch arrived which contained the news of his dismissal, he 
knew that his hold on the troops would enable him to despise it. The soldiers 
would not so easily suffer their idol to be cast down, and could not readily be 
brought to believe that he, who was bleeding for the cause of his country, was 
ruining it by his selfish ambition. 

By Klapka's exertions, and at the earnest solicitation of the officers of the army, 
a compromise was effected between Goergey and the government, by which it was 
agreed that he should resigp. the ministry of war, but retain the command of the 
army of the Upper Danube, Meszaros being still nominally generalissimo. He 



goergey's retreat towards the teyss. 351 

submitted with ill-disguised rage, but it soon became apparent, by the total want 
of decision and united action in the cabinet, that he was in reality master of the 
crisis, and that, by his acts, Hungary must stand or fall, whoever might be 
nominally at the head of affairs. He became reserved, cold, and distant Avith his 
most intimate friends, but scarce sought to conceal his contempt for the orders of 
the government. Still this did not lessen his influence with the army. He Avas 
the idol of the soldiery, the first in fight, the last in retreat, cool, impassible, 
indomitable ; unmoved either by victory or defeat, his followers believed that 
he had chained fortune to his chariot-Avheels, and that even when beaten he 
was beaten of his own accord, and v/ith some deep-laid design. So hard is it for 
the most patriotic of men, and the most enthusiastic lovers of liberty, to keep 
free, amidst the tumults of war, from the dangerous fascination with Avhich 
military heroes surround themselves. 

When the next movements of the troops came under discussion, Goergey was 
ill of fever. Kossuth advised the junction of Perczel's corps, amounting to ten 
thousand men, with Visocki's division and Klapka's, and a general concentration 
of all the forces on the Upper Danube, to be aided by a levy en masse of the 
peasantry. His Avishes Avere complied Avith, and Klapka commenced his march ; 
but no sooner did Goergey hear of Avhat was taking place than he expressed his 
dissatisfaction in the strongest possible terms, and Klapka, yielding to his 
objections, broke up his plan and fell back on Comorn once more. The govern- 
ment fled to Szeguedin ; the Austrian s occupied Buda, and on the eleventh of 
July, an action, in Avhich the Hungarians Avere Avorsted, Avas fought under the 
Avails of the fortress of Comorn. Goergey noAv saAV there Avas no resource but to 
retreat towards the Teyss, leaving Klapka to defend the fortress. He accordingly 
commenced his flight — for it Avas little better — in forced marches, beat off his 
pursuers at Waitzen, and reached Tokay Avith the loss of one-fifth of his troops. 
On the tAventy-fifth he- wrote to Klapka from Geszthely, speaking Avith confidence 
of the security of his position, and hopefully of his future prospects, and urging a 
strenuous defence of Comorn as " the unconquerable buhvark " of Hungary, 
The great thing noAV needed Avas Kossuth's presence in the camp, to revive the, 
courage of the troops by the magic of his presence and the fire of his Avords ; he 
Avas aAvare of this necessity himself, and attempted to meet it, but the aj)pearance 
of flying detachments of the enemy compelled him to return to Arad, Avhen on his 
Avay to Goergey's head-quarters. The evil influences Avhich then Avere there at 
work, were thus alloAved to have free course. 

Dembinski had in the meantime been ordered to protect Szeguedin, the seat of 
government, but Avas attacked and defeated near Szoreg by the Austrians under 
Haynau, and the Russians under Paniutine. Bem had been compelled to retreat 
into Transylvania before large masses of the Russians under Grottenhelm and 
Luders. He was recalled by the government, in the hope that he might be able 
to infuse neAV life into the army and retrieve the falling fortunes of the nation. 
But this hope Avas blasted by the terrible battle of TemesA^ar, in Avhich the 



OU2 HISTOE-Y OF IlUNGAr.Y. , 

Hungarians were utterly routed. Great numbers were slain, and the remnant 
who escaped were so demoralized that they could not be depended upon to stand 
another shot from the enemy. The bank, which had hitherto met the expenses of 
the war, was broken up ; the troops were in want of supplies, and had no means 
of obtaining them except by levying contributions upon the unfortunate peasantry. 
This was a course to which Kossuth declared he could not consent. Sooner than 
the army should treat their countrymen as a conquered population, he was ready 
to sacrifice everything, and first of all to lay down his own power. 

All but the shadow of it was already gone. Goergey treated him and the 
government with indifference, and had of late repeatedly stated that, in order to 
save the country, the whole authority should be placed in his hands as dictator. 
As he was the only one of all the generals in the field who had a serviceable force 
at his command, this was clearly a necessity, and Kossuth prepared to submit to 
it. He accordingly resigned his powers into Goergey's hands, and his example 
was followed by the whole cabinet. The following proclamation was then issued, 
announcing the event to the nation : — 

"KOSSUTH TO THE NATION. 

" After the unfortunate battles, wherewith God, in these latter days, has visited our 
people, we have no hope of our successful continuance of the defence against the allied 
forces of Russia and Austria. Under such circiimstances, the salvation of the national 
existence, and the protection of its fortune, lie in the hands of the leaders of the army. 
It is my firm conviction that the continuance of the present Government would not only 
prove useless, but also injurious to the nation. Acting upon this conviction, I proclaim, 
that — moved by those patriotic feelings which, throughout the course of my life, have 
impelled me to devote all my thoughts to the country — I, and with me the whole of the 
cabinet, resign the guidance of the public affairs ; and that the supreme civil and military 
power is herewith conferred on the General Arthur Goergey, tintil the nation, making 
use of its right, shall have disposed that power according to its will. I expect of the 
said General Goergey — and I make him responsible to God, the nation, and to history — 
that, according to the best of his ability, he will use this supreme power for the salva- 
tion of the national and political independence of our poor country and of its future. May 
he love liis country withthat disinterested love which I bear it ! May his endeavours to 
re-conquer the mdependence and happiness of the nation be crowned with greater 
success than mme were ! 

" I have it no longer in my power to assist the comitry by actions. If my death can 
benefit it, I will gladly sacrifice my life. May the God of justice and of mercy watch 
over my poor people ! ' 

Louis Kossuth, S. Vuckorits, 

L. CSANYI, M. HORVATH." 

This was followed by another from Goergey — 

"GOERGEY TO THE NATION. 

" Citizens ! 

" The Provisional Government exists no longer. The Governor and the Ministers 
have voluntarily resigned their offices. Under these circumstances, a Military Dictator- 
ship is necessary, and it is I who take it, together with the civil power of the state. 

" Citizens ! whatever in our precarious position can be done for the country, I intend 
to do, be it by means of arms or by negotiations. I intend to do all in my power to 
lessen the painfull sacrifice of life and treasure, and to put a stop to persecution, cruelty, 
and murder. . 



THE SURRENDER AT VILAGOS. 353 

" Citizens ! the events of our time are astounding, and the blows of fate overwhelming t 
Such a state of things defies all calculation. My only advite and desire is, that you 
shall quietly return to your homes, and that you eschew assisting in the resistance and 
the combats, even in case your towns are occupied by the enemy. The safety of your 
persons and properties you can only obtain by quietly staying at the domestic hearth, 
and by peacefully following the course of your usual occupations. 

" Citizens ! it is ours to bear whatever it may please God in His inscrutable wisdom 
to send us. Let our strength be the strength of men, and let us find comfort in the 
conviction that Right and Justice must weather the storms of all times. 

" Citizens ! May God be with us ! 

" Arad, 11th August, 1849." " Arthur Goergey." 

The directions given to the people to remain at home and pursue their occupa- 
tions quietly were ominous. One of Kossuth's favourite schemes — and his ideas 
on this point were shared by most of the other generals — was a general rising on 
the part of the inhabitants for the purpose of harassing the enemy by a partizan 
warfare, and cutting of his troops in detail. To this Goergey had testified the 
strong repugnance which military men generally feel to the employment of irre- 
gular forces of any sort and for any purpose. But it was, nevertheless, 
a m.ovement to which the whole nation was looking as the last sacrifice 
of despairing valour, the last protest against the destruction of their liberties and 
the devastation of their country. So that Goergey, by denouncing it in express 
terms, not only administered a coujo de gi-ace to the government, but threw cold 
Avater on the patriotic zeal of the people, and in some measure prepared them for 
the catastrophe which was now at hand. 

On the very day on which he issued this proclamation, he wrote to the Russian 
general, Riidiger, informing him that it was owing to the folly and rashness of 
the provisional government that this contest had been maintained after his 
majesty the czar had resolved to interfere ; that he, being a man of action, had 
seen at once that in the face of such overwhelming odds, it was impossible to 
carry on the war any longer ; that he had in consequence called upon the pro- 
visional government to make an unconditional resignation of its power into his 
hands, which it had accordingly done, and that he and his army were now prepared 
to make an absolute surrender to the Russians, trusting to the czar's clemency to 
secure the safety of those officers who, having formerly served in the Austrian army, 
were seriously compromised by the part they had taken in the recent events. He 
therefore called upon general Rudiger to surround him, so that he might lay 
down his arms to him, but declared that he was prepared to annihilate his whole 
force in a pitched battle sooner than make his submission to the Austrians. A 
promise had been previously obtained from the officers under him to agree to any 
arrangement or stipulation he might make, which most of them gave under the 
impression that he was about to open up negotiations for bringing the war to- a 
happy and honourable termination. The private soldiers — the hussars and hon- 
veds* were in like manner cheated into the belief that what A\'as about to take 
place was a mere matter of form, and that the real object their general had in 
* Militia — "Home-defenders." 

i2 B 



354 HISTORY OF HTINGARY. 

view was tlie placing of the grand duke Constantine upon the throne of Hungary 
in the place of the hated house of Hapsburg. 

On the thirteenth of August, Rudiger appeared at the head of his forces at 
Vilagos, to receive the surrender of the Hungarian army. The latter, number- 
ing twenty-four thousand tried soldiers, Avith a large park of artillery, were drawn 
up along the Szollos road, in two solid columns. Goergey and his staff were 
magnificently entertained in the Russian camp, and the troops Avaited in dread 
suspense for the closing scene in the tragedy. At last the dictator rode out 
splendidly mounted, cold and calm as ever, and gave the troops order to march, 
and pile their arms as they passed an appointed spot ; announcing at the 
same time that he no longer felt competent to conduct the war, but if any one 
else thought himself fit to lead, he would gladly yield him the command. 
In reply to this cruel mockery, a veteran captain sprang forward and implored 
him to allow the army to cut its way through the enemy. " Sir," was the 
stern rejoinder, " this is no time for joking." The terrible truth seemed now 
for the first time to have burst in all its force upon the soldiers — the war 
was at an end, and they were in the power of the Russians. The scene which 
folio tved bafiles description. Any heart less cold than Goergey's vfovld have 
been appalled at the extent of the calamity that could fling so many gallant 
men from the height of valorous enthusiasm in one moment to the lowest depths 
of despair. The honveds — who had tramped side by side through many a stub- 
born battle, insensible to danger and incapable of fear, who had followed 
wherever Goergey led, with a devotion unparalleled in all the record of human 
frailties, follies, and delusions — Avept bitterly, and embraced one another, as if 
for the last time. The hussars dismounted, kissed and hugged their horses, 
the faithful companions of so much glory and disaster, and sooner than deliver 
them up to the enemy, drcAV their pistols and shot them through the head. 
Some of the officers broke their SAVords and cast the pieces at Goergey's feet, 
Avhile others committed suicide on the spot, rather than trust themselves to the 
tender mercies of a barbarous foe. EveryAvhere Avas lamentation and despair. 
Order was gradually restored, and the troops moved forward towards Sarkad 
previous to their final dispersion. 

While this mournful scene Avas being enacted at Vilagos, Klapka was playing 
a hero's part at Comorn. He had received early intelligence of Haynau's de- 
parture from Pesth for the purpose of pursuing the government to Szeguedin and 
attacking Goergey in the south, and with a view of making a diversion in support 
of the latter, he determined to attack the force that Avas blockading the fortress. 
Accordingly, at midnight on the second of August, one division of his forces under 
colonel Asserman surprised and carried the Austrian position at Almas at the 
point of the bayonet, and compelled the enemy to fall back upon Gran. Tavo other 
columns advanced to Mocsa, Avhere they surrounded an Austrian regiment and 
compelled them to lay doAvn their arms. Then uniting, they pursued their march 
upon Csem. . The Austrians abandoned it at their approach. The whole army 



DEFEAT OF THE AUSTRIANS ON THE LEFT BANK OF THE DANUBE. 355 

now advanced in battle array. They had the enemy enclosed _^between them 
and the Danube. There was but one passage across it at Lovad, and if Asserman 
gained the heights over that place, and opened his batteries at the time Klapka 
had calculated, all would have been over. Their retreat would have been cut off 
and a surrender inevitable. A general movement was accordingly made upon 
their position. The fire of some heavy field-pieces from their entrenchments at 
first caused some confusion in the Hungarian ranks. Colonel Schulz was 
ordered to storm the battery. He led forward the storming columns in a rush, 
with loud cheering, in the midst of a heavy cannonade and so terrified were the 
Austrians by this display of courage, that they turned and fled towards Atsh before 
their assailants reached them. As they ran in one confused mass, the Hunga- 
rian artillery rained death amongst them from the heights, while the hussars 
and honveds pressed close upon them along the plain and cut down the fugitives 
without mercy. At Atsh they rallied and stood at bay. Once more they were 
routed, and there was now no resource but to seek safety across the Danube. 
Luckily for them, they reached the bridge at Lovad before Colonel Asserman had 
gained the heights which commanded it. They were still crowding across in 
confusion when his artillery opened upon them and completed the rout. The 
survivors reached Presburg in disorder, and the Hungarians slept victorious upon 
the bloody field. Out of an army of 6,000, the Austrians had lost 1,000 killed and 
1,000 prisoners, besides 12 field-pieces, 18 carronades, 3,000 muskets, and 
a large quantity of military stores and provisions. The triumph was complete. 
Haynau's line of communication with Vienna was now cut ofi". It was only necessary 
to raise Upper Hungary, attack him in the rear, and, if Goergey but did his duty, 
the destruction of the enemy Avas certain. A courier was sent ofi" to apprise the 
latter of the joyful news, and promise him the support of an army thirty thousand 
strong within the ensuing four weeks. 

Klapka now marched to Haab — found an immense store of provisions there, as 
Well as ammunition — ordered a levy, en masse, in the surrounding counties, which 
Was responded to with enthusiasm. He soon found himself at the head of a large 
and efiicient force, burning to be led against the enemy. He resolved to cross the 
Austrian frontier, invade Styria, and returning thence with the rifles of the moun- 
taineers, annihilate the Austrian army, under Nugent, at the Flatten Lake. On 
the 1 1th of August he reviewed the troops, and informed them that he was about 
to lead them upon a new expedition. The announcement was received with 
thunders of applause. They were in the highest spirits, flushed with victory, and 
eager to march once more against the enemy. In the evening he invited the 
ofiicers of the staff to his quarters to dinner. They, too, were bounding with hope. 
They were merry, as if they sat at a marriage feast, with no cloud in the future, 
and no danger near. They drank to the triumph of Hungarian liberty, to the 
success of Kossuth and Goergey, and to the confusion and overthrow of all 
despotisms, and that of Austria in particular. They were still in the midst of the 
festivities when a man in peasant's dress, weary and travel-stained, Avas led before 

2 B 2 



35G 



HISrOKY OF HUNGARY. 



' ' ' 'JjiUjW, 



t ' , ? 




the general. It was Paul Almasi, the speaker of the Lower House, who tol in a 
few words with trembling lips — that all was lost ; that Goergey had surrendered, 
that Kossuth was in Turkey, and that he was a fugitive. 



SIEGE OF COMOKN. 



357 



There Avas no resource but to fall back on Comorn forthwith, and there make 
the best defence possible, in case the news proved true. This, however, Klapka 
still doubted. So many lying reports were raised by the Austrian agents, with 
the view of sowing dissension and breeding want of confidence amongst the 
patriots, that he felt persuaded that the intelligence in this instance was at least 
grossly exaggerated. The arrival of great crowds of fugitives, however, belonging 
to Goergey's army, and the concentration of vast masses of the enemy in the neigh- 
bourhood, at last put an end to all doubt. On the nineteenth he was summoned to 
surrender the fortress, but he declined giving any answer until he was placed in 
possession of the exact state of affairs in Transylvania and the Lower Danube. 
Unfortunately the Austrians had, in this instance, no motive for concealment, and 




rORTEESS or COMORN. 



they proposed an armistice for a fortnight, during which he might send a depu- 
tation to examine into the truth of their statements and satisfy him whether the 
Hungarian cause was not indeed utterly ruined. To this he agreed, and four 
commissioners were despatched, two in each direction. The truce was occupied in 
strengthening the fortifications, increasing the stores, bringing in recruits and 
drilling them. The officers were animated by the best possible spirit, and declared 
their determination, one and all, to secure terms of capitulation or perish in the 
ruins of the fortress. They had learnt that those of their number who had 
fallen into the enemy's hands at Arad, in spite of the promises of clemency and 
oblivion which had been showered upon them previous to their surrender, 
were tried by court-martial, and in some cases executed. The sternest chances 
of war were preferable to a fate like this. XJnforti-iriately the soldiers did 



358 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

not all partake of the same generous enthusiasm. Klapka's own army were 
unshaken in their fidelity under all vicissitudes ; but the influence exercised upon 
them by the crowds of fugitives — the scattered remnants of the various other 
corps, who daily crowded into the fortress during the armistice, was anything but 
beneficial. They told dismal tales of the misfortunes they had undergone, of the 
hardships they had endured, and of the utter and final prostration of the national 
cause. The spirit of discontent thus excited was but too well supported and 
strengthened by the intrigues of the Austrians, who caused printed bills to be 
introduced into the fortress, encouraging the soldiers to desert, and to compel their 
officers to surrender. In one instance an attempt was made to assassinate Klapka 
by an. agent of the Viennese police. The consequences of all this soon became 
apparent. Desertions became more frequent, and at last the troops began to run 
off" by forties and fifties at a time, and fears arose that a general debandade might 
take place. General Klapka determined to make an example that would strike 
terror into the waverers. A regiment of the Botskai hussars was decimated, and 
eight other deserters who had been folloAved and brought back were shot. This 
had the desired efi'ect. There was no more talk of mutiny. 

On the 2nd of September the deputation returned, confirming t^e news of 
Kossuth's flight, of Goergey's surrender, of the delivery of the Hungarian prisoners 
to the Austrians by the Russians — in every particular. There was still one hope 
remaining. Comorn was a strong, almost an impregnable fortress ; Petervaradin 
was, if possible, still stronger. They were garrisoned by men who, if driven to 
extremities, were well known to be capable of anything that courage and obstinacy 
could achieve. To reduce them both, would cost at best a vast amount of blood 
and treasure. The Austiians were well aware of this, and were anxious to avoid 
putting them to the test if possible. Under these circumstances, Klapka thought 
it possible that, by holding out, they might wring from the conquerors, possibly, a 
recognition of the constitutional rights of the country, and certainly, the safety of 
those of his unfortunate comrades who had fallen into the hands of Haynau, 
Acting on this belief, he sent a message to Haynau with a draft of the conditions 
on which the garrison of Comorn would surrender, but his hopes were blasted 
soon after, by the arrival of the news of the unconditional surrender of Peter- 
varadin, and another summons was sent by Haynau, calling upon Comorn to follow 
its example. In addition to this, the siege of Venice having ended in the capture 
of that ill-fated city, the Austrians were able to concentrate their whole force 
around the fortress, amounting in all to 100,000 men, seconded by a train of 
siege artillery. The armistice terminated on the fourth, and on the fifth hostilities 
were resumed, and continued with but trifiing results till the nineteenth. The 
position of the garrison was then becoming desperate ; they were cut ofi" from all 
resources ; they had no hope of aid from any quarter ; their clothes, provisions, and 
ammunition were failing them ; but still sooner than surrender unconditionally, 
they were prepared to hold out till death. But on that day, for the first time, 
Haynau signified his willingness to treat, but for a purely military convention,- 



SURRENDER OF THE FORTRESS. 359 

No allusion to national or political affairs could be admitted. The country, he 
said, was conquered, and its future was now in the hands of the victors, A 
council of war was called to decide upon this proposal, and it was resolved to 
send a petition to the emperor, claiming a restoration of the political institutions 
of the nation, and treat with Haynau for the surrender of the fortress. In con- 
sequence of various attempts made to bribe Klapka to separate his fate from that 
of his companions in arms, and yield the place for a pension and amnesty, he 
resolved to take no part personally in the negotiations. A committee of officers 
was accordingly appointed to meet Haynau, and on the 27th of September the 
folloAving capitulation was agreed upon at Puszta Herkaly, a farm, a short distance 
from Comorn. 

1. The garrison are to be allowed freely to withdi'aw, without arms ; the swords of 
the officers to remain ui their possession. 

Foreign passports shall be granted to those officers who have formerly served in the 
imperial army ; to those who do not ask for passports to other countries, a free dismis- 
sion to their homes — excepting such as voluntarily enter the imperial service. 

A free residence at then- homes shall be granted to the Honved officers not previously 
in the imperial service, without restriction as to their future conduct and occupation. 

An amnesty is granted to the rank and file of the imperial regiments, and to those 
individuals who have been in the meantime promoted. They are to remain rmmolested, 
and no legal prosecution shall hereafter be conducted against them. 

2. Passports abroad shall be furnished to all who apply for them withui thu-ty days. 

3. One month's pay to the officers, and ten days' wages to the rank and file, according 
to the rates of the Austrian service, shall be paid in Austrian national bank-notes. 

4. For the settlement of the various obligations entered into by the garrison, as shown 
by theu" orders on the military chest, the sum of 500,000 guilders, convention's munze 
(about £250,000), shall be paid in Austrian bank-notes. 

5. The sick and wounded in Comorn, and in the hospitals, shall be properly cared 
for. 

6. Private property, both real and personal, shall be generally retained by the 
owners. 

Y. The place, time, and manner of giving up the arms, shall be hereafter determined. 

8. All hostilities shall immediately cease on both sides. 

9. The fortress shall be given up according to the usages of war after a mutual 
ratification of the conditions. 

On the 1st of October, all that remained of the Hungarian army was paraded in 
the garrison, to take part in a funeral service in commemoration of the brave men 
who had fallen in the war of independence. A requiem was solemnly chanted, 
and then the troops filed past the general, in slow time and in mournful silence. A 
single heartfelt cheer for fatherland, the utterance of a grief too great for words to 
convey it, spoke their last farewell. All was over. On the 3rd and two following; 
days, they marched out, laid down their arms, and yielded up their colours, 
and the Austrians entered the fortress and took possession. The Hungarian, 
nation existed no longer, save in the hopes, and regi'ets, and undying enthusiasm 
of a great, but unfortunate race. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



THE I-IOKROIiS or THE PEACE. 



1849—1851. 

DuKiNG the whole of the war of independence, the Austrian press employed 
itself in heaping execrations upon the wretches whose obstinate resistance to the 
commands of their legitimate lord the emperor, was desolating the country, and 
depriving the inhabitants of the benefit of those measures of clemency and favour 
which his imperial and royal majesty had in store for them. The "restoration of 
order," and annihilation of the revolution, were to be the commencement of an era 
of peace and happiness and contentment, in which the people, freed from the 
cares and anxieties, discords and agitations of the parliamentary system, should 
dwell in blessed repose under the wing of a paternal government. It was loudly 
asserted, and even in England the cry found an echo, that the revolutionary party 
in Hungary were but a branch of the vast body of conspirators against law and 
order, whose machinations had convulsed society in every part of Europe, and 
whose main object was the establishment of a community of goods. As a natural 
consequence of this proposition, the Austro-Russian army was fighting in defence 
of the sacred rights of property, of the hallowed ties of family, and of all that men 
valued most on earth. 

To the old nobility, enamoured of repose, worshippers of the past — it was 
no difficult matter to represent change, of whatever kind, as an ogre and mon- 
strosity. Amongst the bourgeoisie of Vienna and Paris, who looked on political 
rights as they would on silks or calico — good if they brought present profits to 
the till, rubbish if not — and who could not understand the feeling which prompts 
men to brave hardship and death for an unseen principle, a charge of com- 
munism against the revolutionary leaders was readily received, and the restoration 
of high funds and a brisk trade was looked upon as an exploit worthy of a hero, 
and sufficient to entitle him to eternal gratitude. The man who had such a work 
in hand was, in their eyes, not a man whose word should be lightly doubted. 
If he said peace would bring clemency and forbearance, even his enemies were 
to trust him. 

But, strange to say, it was not amongst these classes only that this confidence in 
the Austrian government and its satellites gained ground. Many of the Hun- 
garians, who afterwards atoned for their error by a martyr's death, believed the 
assurances made to them by the Russians after the surrender at Vilagos, that the 



TREATMENT OF PRISONERS. 361 

emperor but waited the cessation of hostilities to proclaim an amnesty, and bury 
the past in oblivion. Their delivery into the hands of the Anstrians, in defiance 
of the only stipulation they sought to make when they laid down their arms, and 
their cruel treatment in the fortresses and military prisons to which they were 
consigned, did not undeceive them. They were told that it was all in consequence 
of the obstinacy of Klapka in defending Comorn, and that they could not hope for 
a relaxation of these severities until resistance was entirely at an end. In full 
reliance on this statement, many of them wrote letters to that general, imploring 
him to cease fighting, since fighting had no longer an object, and by an uncon- 
ditional surrender, restore them to freedom and their homes. Such an appeal as 
this was hard to resist. It hajd great weight in inducing Klapka to put an end to 
the war ; for he, too, could not bring himself to believe that the governors of a 
great empire, and the leaders of victorious armies, would come before Europe as 
the falsifiers of sworn oaths, and the breakers of plighted faith. Let us see how 
far his expectations, and those of his unfortunate comrades, were justified by sub' 
sequent events. 

When the war broke out, great numbers, both of Hungarian soldiers and 
ofiicers serving in the Austrian army, in Hungary, Italy, and other parts of the 
empire, feeling that when the nation and the emperor were arrayed against each 
other, their allegiance was clearly due to the former, deserted en masse, and took 
service under the diet. Every one of these men knew they were fighting all 
through the contest with a halter round their necks. If taken prisoners, they had 
no mercy to expect from their old masters. Clearly it was Goergey's duty, before 
surrendering, to have obtained some guarantee that they should receive an 
amnesty. To deliver them unarmed and helpless into the hands of the Austrians, 
was the refinement of cruelty. Nevertheless, this he did. In his letter to 
general Riidiger, he feebly expressed a hope, that his majesty the czar would 
interfere on their behalf. But in a case in which the lives of gallant men are at 
stake, there should have been no dependence placed on the generosity of poten- 
tates or the smooth blandishments of subordinates. If he could not have secured 
their safety, he should have let them fight it out on open ground, and die a^soldier's 
death, sword in hand. Better be swept down in the flush of generous enthusiasm, 
than to be strangled by foreign executioners, or perish by inches in the damps of a 
dungeon. 

Immediately after the surrender at Vilagos, the Russians handed over their 
prisoners Avithout exception to the Austrians, without caution, stipulation, or 
remonstrance. Goergey alone received a free pardon, and retired to his home. 
The others were crowded into the gaols and fortresses ali over the kingdom, and 
treated with extreme harshness. Courts-martial were established to try them — 
composed of men, be it remembered, still reeking from the battle-field, who had a 
few days previously met their prisoners in mortal combat, and had been over and 
over again routed by them, with all the bad passions of war still boiling in their 
hearts. Such a proceeding was probably never heard of in history. It was not 



362 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

royal officers sitting in judgment upon captured rebels, but victorious enemies 
trying in cold blood men of a different race, different language, and different 
nationality, who had fought bravely against them in open field, in obedience to 
the lawfully constituted authorities of their own country. The natural conse- 
quences followed. Great numbers were condemned to death, without counsel, 
without friends, without support or aid of any kind to support them in the 
presence of bloodthirsty men, and under the terrible weight of adversity which 
pressed upon them. Greater numbers still were sentenced to lengthened terms of 
imprisonment in fortresses. The work was proceeding rapidly when it was 
suddenly remembered that Comorn was still holding out — that these severities 
might deter the garrison from surrendering, and consequently entail upon the 
government immense loss in reducing the place by a regular siege. The policy of 
dissimulation was accordingly again resorted to. The trials were suspended, or 
conducted with extreme caution. The emperor's own aid-de-camp was sent from 
Vienna with respites for prisoners under sentence of death. " Let but Comorn 
surrender," said all the officials, " and the gaols will be thrown open, and the royal 
clemency displayed in all its glory." 

Comorn did surrender on the 4th of October ; on the day following, the garrison 
dispersed towards their homes, after refusing to enter the Austrian service, each 
provided, according to the terms of the treaty, with a warrant of safety. On the 
6th of October, Count Louis Batthyanyi, who had not fought against Austria ; who, 
owing to Austrian treachery, had been in prison the whole winter ; Avhose only 
offence was his being prime minister, with the emperor's sanction and recognition, 
before the armed struggle commenced, and having resisted Jellachich, whom the 
emperor, under his own hand and seal, had declared a rebel and a traitor ; a man 
of ancient family, of immense wealth, of moderate views, of known patriotism, of 
unblemished honour, revered all over Hungary ; who had done all in his power to 
avert an appeal to arms by mediating between the king and the people — was 
shot at Pesth. His trial was secret. What occurred at it is not known, and in all 
probability never will be known, till the victim and his murderers shall stand face 
to face, where crime shall be blasted and innocence glorified in the presence of pure 
Justice. He was accused of high treason, simply for acting as has been described 
in a previoixs part of this work, and condemned to be hanged. The ignominy of 
the mode of death appalled him, and he made desperate attempts to cut his throat 
in prison with a penknife. He failed ; but was so mutilated, that the surgeons 
declared the sentence as it stood could not be executed. It Avas' accordingly 
commuted to shooting. He took an affectionate leave of his wife and children — 
marched out to the place' of execution, pale from loss of blood, but still dignified, 
calm, and defiant. Avast crowd had collected to witness the assassination of him 
whom for years they had looked upon as the foremost man in all the nation. 
He was blindfolded, cried, "Eljen a haza ! " — God bless the country! and fell 
pierced with balls. His property was confiscated, and his wife and children are 
desolate in a foreign land. "This blood will be a curse on those who 



TREATMENT OF PKTSONERS. 363 

shed it ; and men who sully their victory by such crimes have conquered in 



* 



vain. 

On the same day, at Arad, fourteen general officers who had surrendered to the 
Kussians as prisoners of war, tried in the same way by vindictive enemies whom 
they had beaten in the field, and to whom they had never yielded, were shot or 
hanged. Ernest Kiss, Louis Aulich, John Damianich, Nagy Sandor, Ignatz 
Torok, George Lahner, Charles Count Veczey, Charles Knezich, Ernest Polt Von 
Poltenberg, Charles Count Leiningen Westerburg, Joseph Schweidel, Aristides 
Desewfi'y, William Lazar, Andrew Gaspar. They all met their death with un- 
shrinking fortitude, as proud, as calm, and as victorious in suffering as they had 
been on the field. Damianich, who was the very type and model of a soldier, 
accomplished, gifted, studious, courageous, and indefatigable, who had held the 
fortress of Arad to the very last, defied the whole Austrian army to take it — 
and suTrendered to the Russians, solely on condition that both men and 
officers should be dismissed in peace and safety to their homes, but who, 
nevertheless, was delivered up to his enraged enemies, — was carried to the 
place of execution, being unable to walk in consequence of a fracture in his 
leg. For four hours he was left sitting there face to face Avith death, watching 
the expiring agonies of his friends. He looked on with perfect composure, and 
when at last his turn came, and he limped to his post, simply remarked, " It is 
strange that I, who was always first in the attack, should be the last here." 
Nagy Sandor defied his enemies at the portals of the grave, and warned them as 
to the future — "■ HocUe mihi—cras tihi!''' "To-day it is my turn — to-morrow it 
will be yours !" 

In addition to these, among the statesmen who were judicially assassinated in 
the same manner, were Ladislaus Csanyi, minister of commerce, one of the most 
eminent men in Hungary ; Baron Sigismond Perenyi, president of the Upper 
House ; Baron Jessenak, lord lieutenant of the county of Nyitria ; and Prince 
Worontiecky, Many of these were venerable for their age, and for an illustrious 
life spent in the service of the empire, but neither age nor honours were any 
protection against the atrocities of the courts-martial. 

How many more, unknown to fame, were put to death at the same time, 
without even the poor consolation of feeling that posterity would treasure their 
names as " household words," will never be known. The executions went on 
in every county in the kingdom with such rapidity, and such bloodthirsty 
zeal, that the appalled inhabitants ceased to take count of them, or to allude 
to them. All those against whom no overt act of hostility could be charged, 
but whose sympathies were known to be on the side of the patriots, were 
maltreated, plundered, and persecuted by the military. No sentence was passed 
without confiscation of property; so that those who were fortunate enough to 
escape with life and liberty, found themselves beggared outcasts. Count 

* Times, October 17th, 1849. 



364 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

George Krolyi was fined fifteen thousand pounds «for having shown "inde- 
cent joy" when the Hungarian army entered Pesth. Thousands were im- 
mured in dungeons, in various parts of the kingdom, for long terms of years, 
and still lie there, hopeless and forgotten in their living graves. Nor did the 
cruelties of Haynau — the wretched monster who degraded the soldier's uniform into 
the livery of an executioner, under whose special direction " this work of pacifi- 
cation," as it was called, proceeded — stop with the men who had conquered him in 
arms. As a last and crowning disgrace — a stain which all the waters in Chris- 
tendom cannot wipe out from Austrian colours, and the remembrance of which 
can never be blotted from men's memories — women were dragged from their homes, 
and in the presence of " imperial, royal Austrian officers,' and in the midst of 
ranks of armed men, were publicly stripped and fiogged for having fulfilled the 
highest and holiest of woman's duties — succouring and sheltering the fugitive and 
the outcast. How many instances of this brutality occurred Ave know not. One 
case was made sufficiently notorious to fix the character of the rest, and to cal]^ 
forth a shout of execration from all Europe. Madame de Maderspach, the wife 
of a noble, who had been living in the midst of her tenantry, in the retirement of 
domestic life, and in the unostentatious discharge of the duties of her station, 
beloved by all who knew her, whose husband had taken no part in the war, was 
accused, falsely or not makes no difi'erence, of having afi"orded an asylum to her 
own nephew. We shall, however, let her tell her own tale : — 

" My heart has been turned to stone ; — I can, therefore, with some degree of 
composure, relate the misfortunes of my house. An army of Hungarians, of 
10,000 men, surrendered in our immediate neighbourhood. Two days afterwards' 
some imperialist troops entered Ruskby. It is probable that my enviable family 
happiness had created enemies at Ruskby, and that they were resolved to destroy 
it ; for I am not aware that any of us committed any fault. I was suddenly, 
without a previous trial or examination, taken from my husband and children. I 
was dragged into a square formed by the troops, and, in the place in which I 
reside, and in the presence of its population, which had been accustomed to 
honour me, not because I was the lady of the manor, but because the whole tenor 
of my life deserved it, I was flogged with rods. You see I can write without 
dying of shame ; but my husband took his own life. Deprived of all other 
weapons, he shot himself with a small cannon. A general cry of horror was 
raised. I was myself taken to Kararsebes." 

More than seventy thousand of the Hungarian soldiers who had borne arms 
in the war, and had surrendered or been dispersed, were torn from their homes, 
and forcibly enlisted in the Austrian army. This, though cruelty and injustice 
of the blackest dye, was still not an express breach of faith. But in the 
case of the garrison of Comorn, the articles of the capitulation were flagrantly 
and audaciously broken. One of the principal clauses provided for the free 
withdrawal and personal safety of the soldiers and officers, and on laying down 
their arms, "warrants of safety" were accordingly furnished them. They 



ESCAPE OF KOSSUTH. 365 

h?d all previously been invited to enlist in the service of his imperial majesty ; 
but to the great disgust of the royalist officers, not one man volunteered- 
Apparently to avenge this insult, for insult they chose to consider it, notices were 
served on most of the privates after they reached their homes, peremptorily 
ordering them to enrol themselves in the Austrian army ; and in defiance of the 
amnesty for Avhich the capitulation stipulated, several of the officers were 
proclaimed guilty of high treason, and galled upon to surrender to be tried by 
court-martial, and were consequently driven into exile, with its attendant poverty 
and suffering. Of the thirty-three generals who led the Hungarian armies through 
this eventful struggle, twelve were shot or hanged; three were sentenced to 
lengthened terms of imprisonment in fortresses — a lot infinitely worse than death 
itself; some have since fallen victims to disease; and others are wandering the 
Avide Avorld over, living on the memory of their wrongs and the hope of revenge. 
Of seventy-seven colonels belonging to the three arms of the service, two only 
were executed ; eighteen received sentence of imprisonment for eighteen years ; 
eleven, for sixteen years ; eight, for twelve or ten years ; some are dead ; others 
were saved by forming part of the garrison of Comorn ; and the rest, says 
general Klapka, are " fugitives somewhere." 

Kossuth, with 5,000 men, amongst whom were generals Bern and Dembinski, 
Guyon, and others, escaped across the frontier into Turkey, and threw themselves 
upon the protection of. the sultan. They reached Orsova on the 18th of August, 
and received a welcome from the pasha of Widdin ; but owing, it is suspected, 
to the operation of Russian gold or Russian threats, they were afterwards made 
to undergo great privation, though the sultan had made a liberal allowance 
for their maintenance, and pestilential disease at last breaking out amongst them, 
they were carried off by hundreds. Soon after a formal demand for their extra- 
dition was made upon the Porte, both by Austria and Russia, in clear violation of 
international law, and the demand was accompanied by a threat of invasion in case 
of refusal. The situation of the sultan now became perplexing. Such a request 
was in itself an insult, but how to repel it with the feeble resources at his com- 
mand, was a question more easily asked than answered. He applied both to France 
and England to learn what course they would take in case he asserted his 
undoubted right to protect and succour all who sought shelter in his dominions, 
but was unable to obtain an assurance of aught beyond a moral support. To 
meet the difficulties of the case Redschid Pasha suggested that the refugees should 
embrace the Moslem faith, in which case compliance with the demands of the 
allied powers would be impossible, as their allegiance would, according to the 
Mahometan law, have become irrevocably transferred to the Porte. When the 
proposal was made, Kossuth rejected it without hesitation^ but Bern, Guyon,* and 
others — men of action rather than of thought, in whom hatred of absolutism had 
become a veritable religion — accepted it at once. To calm the fears of the powers, 

* Bern is since dead: Guyon is Pasha of Damascus. 



366 HISTORY OF KUNGAEY. 

with respect to the remainder of the fugitives, they were*renioved,from the frontier 
and shut up in prison at Kutayah, but not before the sultan had expressly declared 
his determination to stake the existence of his empire upon their safety. The- 
United States government having come to the determination to send a frigate for 
the purpose of bringing them to America, or any other country in which they, 
chose to settle, Turkey consented to yield them up ; and accordingly, on the 7th.. 
of September, 1851, Kossuth and his suite, and a considerable number of his 
companions, embarked on board the " Mississipi." The ex-governor left the 
vessel at Gibralta.r for the purpose of paying a visit to England, and arrived at 
Southampton on the 23rd of October, In England he received an enthusiastic 
welcome, and after a somewhat lengthened visit to America, he returned to 
London, where he has taken up his abode until circumstances shall enable him to 
re-enter his native country. '. 

Since the surrender of Comorn, the state of Hungary has been a sealed book to 
the rest of Europe. Extraordinary precautions have been taken by the Austrian 
authorities to prevent the entrance of any person coming from countries in 
possession of a constitutional government, or in which liberal views are known to 
prevail. One traveller,* an American gentleman, managed to overcome the 
scruples of the police, and make his way into the interior ; but although extremely 
guarded in his conversation and inquiries, he soon drew. down on him the sus- 
picion of the authorities, was arrested, tried secretly by court-martial, browbeaten 
and bullied by coarse and brutal soldiers, and at last thrown into a dungeon, 
where he might have remained for an indefinite length of time, if he had not 
found means of making known his position to the American consul, whose 
energetic remonstrances speedily procured his release, accompanied, however, by 
expulsion from the Austrian territories. He bore testimony to the utter pros^ 
tration of the people under the grinding tyranny of military despotism, the 
extinction of literature, the daily and nightly terror caused by the spies who 
infested every corner of the land, — the streets, the cafes, the salons, the hotels, 
and even the family circle, watching and treasuring each word as it fell, and 
labouring with devilish ingenuity to twist innocent expressions into seditious or 
treasonable allusions, — the ferocious insolence of the police, the unchecked 
brutality of the soldiery, the crowded state of the dungeons — crammed with 
wretches who had lingered in agony for months and years, untried, and in 
ignorance, not only of their accusers, but of the offences with Avhich they were 
charged ; the terrible cruelties practised in the fortresses, the torturings, the 
beatings with sticks, the daily fusillades on the glacis, and all the other horrors 
and enormities by which tyranny heaps outrage on humanity, and blasphemes 
G-od, But he bore testimony, too, to the reverence with which Kossuth's name 
and memory are treasured in the hearts of the people ; to the pride with which they 
look back to that surpassing struggle in which the valour of their sons and brothers 

* Mr. C. L. Brace. 



GENEEAL OBSERVATIONS. 367 

SO long baf&ed the rage of despots, and fertilized the soil of every county with 
their blood ; to their hatred of their oppressors, and their firm belief in the speedy 
advent of a day of terrible retribution. 

Since him, no traveller from the west of Europe has been equally fortunate. 
The only information we have received regarding the state of affairs in Hun- 
gary, has been derived from the scanty, imperfect, and often inaccurate intel- 
ligence furnished by newspaper correspondents resident in Vienna. Even the 
passing glimpses thus afibrded, however, are amply sufficient to give an idea 
of the miseries of the population. We hear that so many were arrested on 
such a day for some mysterious conspiracy ; that on another so many were 
shot or hanged by sentence of court-martial, that discontent is prevalent, 
revolutionary agents never idle, the police ever vigilant. That martial law 
has supplied the place of the ancient laws and government of the country, 
and that of that proud and great constitution which survived the shocks and 
storms of a thousand years, not a trace remains save in the people's memories, are 
facts which none seek to deny, and from them each of us may draw his own 
conclusion. Regarding the causes which led to this terrible state of things, there 
has been a great deal of angry discussion, even in England ; but no one who is 
sincerely desirous of arriving at the truth, who has no interests to serve but those 
of freedom and humanity, can have any opinion on the subject but the one — that the 
destruction of Hungarian liberty was a great crime, and that the Hapsburg family 
were the perpetrators of it. The assertion that Kossuth was in any way instru- 
mental in bringing about the catastrophe, is false ; the oftener it is reiterated the 
greater falsehood it becomes, for it is reiterated in %e face of repeated refutation. 
He sought to bring about changes in the constitution certainly, but no changes 
that were not reforms, and no reforms that were not constitutional. Instead of 
injuring, he wished to strengthen it, to protect, restore, and build bulwarks round 
it. These measures were hateful to the Hapsburgs ; they sought to baffie them 
by stirring up a war of races. They dissimulated till they had matured their 
plans, and then joined their forces with those of rebels in arms against the Hun- 
garian parliament, and made the rebel cause the cause of royalty and tyranny. 
When Hungary resisted, she resisted in defence of laws which her sovereign had 
sworn to maintain. When she was crushed, she was crushed by a man to whom 
she owed no allegiance, who had not sought to conceal his hatred of her people, 
and his determination to subdue her. 

Those in England who believe that liberty of speech, and thought, and action, 
are essential to the development both of man's intellectual and moral nature, will 
profoundly regret her fall. For we know well that true progress consists not 
merely in the accumulation of wealth, or the diffusion of luxury, but in the 
constant and earnest endeavour to infuse into national thoughts and aspirations 
more and more of those " weightier matters of the law," Truth, and Justice, and 
Mercy ; in keeping a lofty standard of excellence, a great and pure ideal ever 
before us — ^not, indeed, in the hope that we may reach it, but that we may daily 



005 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

approximate to it. But, without political freedom, this is impossible. In England 
and America there are thousands who profess to have the welfare of the human 
race at heart, to desire earnestly its growth in every virtue that can ennoble 
and dignify it. Their missionaries are to be found in every clime, labouring 
earnestly to spread the knowledge of Him who brought liberty to the captive 
and light to the blind. But, strange to say, these men look upon the political 
condition of the continent as a thing which, as citizens of a free state, they 
certainly must lament, but with which, as Christians, they have nothing to 
do. This is a deplorable fallacy. Hordes of savages dancing before the images 
of their gods, form a less solemn and awful spectacle than great nations, amongst 
Avhom art, and science, and the elegances and luxuries of civilization have 
attained a high state of development, with their intellect paralyzed, their tongues 
tied, all liberty of action, save in the common and petty affairs of life, utterly 
denied them — their very thoughts forbidden to. flow, save in smooth and narrow 
channels ; every generous emotion repressed, and the base one of fear cultivated 
into an unnatural exuberance ; all honourable incentives to energy and activity 
removed. The one is a wild forest, with its points of grandeur, sublimity, and 
beauty, which labour and diligence may make to blossom as the rose, but the 
other is a fruitful field overrun with hateful weeds, and showing the industry of 
generations of husbandmen wasted and gone for nought. The continental nations 
should be our allies in diffusing the blessings of Christianity and peace throughout 
the world. But how can they be so, when countries like Hungary and Italy are 
prostrate at the feet of brutal soldiery, barbarians of the nineteenth century, as 
ferocious and unscrupulous a^ those of Attila or Genseric, as careless of truth 
and justice as if they worshipped Thor or Mars, instead of Him who first cancelled 
the law of might, and made love and justice our law for evermore ? If peoples, 
governed as these are, were fertile in the qualities Avhich make nations great — ^in 
public spirit, moderation, enterprize, humanity, and high principle, they would be 
as wonderful prodigies as the thorn at Glastonbury which blossomed in the midst 
of winter. These virtues are the products of liberty, of a free press, of equal 
law, and of self-government. 

This, then, is continued a question which concerns all who look for and labour to 
hasten the advent of a better, holier, and happier state for all mankind. As such, it 
is especially a question for those who call themselves Christians par excellence. We 
cannot separate Christianity from politics. Rightly considered, the latter is sub- 
ordinate to, ought to be founded upon, and regulated by the other. If men are 
not governed upon Christian principles, they are governed upon the devil's princi- 
ples. There is no medium. " But," in the words of the Persian fatalist in 
Herodotus, " the saddest of all griefs is to see clearly and yet be able to do 
nothing." It is useless, if not cruel, to point out evils, if there be no remedy. In 
pointing out a political evil, however, to an Englishman or an American, it is seldom 
necessary to point out each step in the course he should follow with regard to it. 
One of the proudest characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon race is the indomitable 



FOREIGN POLICY OF ENGLAND. 369 

energy it has always displayed in finding the means of righting wrongs when they 
are once set fully before it. What we want in this case is the creation of a 
higher standard of national duty, the infusion of a better tone into our diplomacy, 
an enlarged sympathy with our neighbours — not a sympathy which shall prompt 
us to meddle in their internal arrangements, and to seek to hinder them managing 
their own affairs in their own way, but one that shall repress the aggression of 
the strong, cause the rights of the weak to be respected, and support justice at all 
hazards. To do all this it is not necessary to fight against principles, to say that 
we will repress the growth of this or that theory by force of arms, or shed blood 
for the promotion of class interests. This was one of the follies of a past genera- 
tion, the penalty of which we are now paying. We need also, an abler class of 
diplomatists — men trained to their "Avork, familiar with the state of public opinion, 
learned, indefatigable, lovers of liberty, with a man's respect for simple manhoods 
We have had enough of fiddlers, courtiers, and gay idlers. 

These are some of the objects to the attainment of which our attention should 
first be directed. If our greatness consist merely in our wealth, the sooner we 
cease boasting of it the better. If it consist also in immense moral influence 
backed up by immense physical strength, unless we use them for high and noble 
purposes, it were better we had never acquired them. An individual in pos- 
session of such advantages would find no difficulty in determining the course he 
ought to follow. A nation should find none either. As rigid an. account will 
be required of the latter regarding the use made of its talents as of the 
former. 



2 c 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE HTJNGAEIAIf CONSXITITTION VAKIETY OE KACES. 

In the primitive organization of the Magyars the public expenditure was devoted 
almost exclusively to one object — the defence of the country. The civil adminis- 
tration, founded upon municipal institutions, was so simple and inexpensive as to 
require almost no taxation whatever. The king and high dignitaries of the realm 
received their salaries chiefly in revenues derived from large landed estates, specially 
devoted to that purpose, in addition to a proportionate share of the proceeds of 
the salt mines, &c. Therefore, the chief expenditure being strictly of a military 
character, it cannot be said that at this period the nobility was exempt from 
taxation; but the reverse. It had to bear the burden of providing for the 
maintenance of the commonwealth ; for it had, at its ovra expense, to bear 
arms in its defence. It thus became a fundamental principle, that those who had 
to fight and provide for their own subsistence during the war, were not required 
to pay other taxes ; but all who were not liable to the performance of military 
duty were liable to taxation. 

The system of national defence was organized in the following manner : — From 
fifty-two to sixty-six strongholds, or fortresses, were selected as rallying points, 
and to each of them was assigned a piece of territory whence it drew its supplies. 
This was the origin of the counties, which became the basis of the political organi- 
zation also. They are called very expressively varmegye, from var a fortress, and 
megye a district, or territory. Over each county was placed a supreme count, 
fo-ispan, the commander of its forces in war, and its chief magistrate in peace. 
The nobility had to assemble under his banner, and it was his duty to levy a 
certain amount of taxation upon the non-fighting portion of the population, one- 
third of which he sent to the king, who, in his turn, was obliged, out of this and 
the revenues of the royal domains, to raise and support the royal banderia.* The 
service expected from the nobles was, however, in proportion to their ability. 
The poorer of them, who had not a horse, served in the infantry — those who had, 
in the cavalry. Any who had tenants {johlagy) led a certain proportion of them 
into the field — for instance, one mounted horseman for every twenty tenants — 
hence the famous hussars. f Those who had estates sufficiently large, whether 
their own property, or held in virtue of some ofiice or dignity, to muster 

* Royal army— from the Italian banderia, a baimer. 
t From huszy twenty, and ar, price — the price or value of twenty. 



THE CONSTITUTION. 371 

men enough for one banner, — from 800 to 1000, brought their own banner into 
the field, one or more according to their ability. In the "banner-holders" was 
the origin of the magnates, or peers, of the Hungarian constitution. 

The military defence of the country was then provided for in the following 
order : — First, it devolved upon the king to take the field Avith his own banner. 
If this were not sufficient, the private banner-holders were called out ; and then 
the poorer noblemen, that is, those who had not men enough for one banner, under 
the banner of their country. The last resource, in cases of extreme danger, was 
a levy, en masse, of the whole population. 

From this it will be seen what an important part the banner-holders, or mag- 
nates, had to perform, being next in duty and in importance to the king. 

This duty, then, to fight in defence of the country, constituted not only the chief, 
but the only source of political rights. No right could exist without this corres- 
ponding duty — and the duty was never imposed without granting the corresponding 
right. And it was natural that those who were bound to fight should have a voice 
in deciding the question of peace or war ; and, consequently, they all had a voice 
in the councils of the nation, but none else ; so that when, in consequence of the 
frequency of hostile inroads, it was found necessary to have, besides the fortresses, 
.fortified towns to serve as places of refuge for the inhabitants of the adjoining 
country, these, however small they might be, — many of them like our rotten 
boroughs, Avere invested with political rights, and represented in the parliament ; 
while other large and populous, but open and unfortified cities, were not so repre- 
sented, because they bore no part in the national defence. 

Upon this principle, those who contributed the largest share to the protecting 
force of the country, r.eceived most authority and consideration in the great council ; 
and this is the origin of the high standing of the magnates in that body. 

Originally, all the nobility, or in other words, all the fighting men, were required 
to attend the national assembly in person. They were, in fact, mass meetings. 
But this was soon felt by the poorer nobles to be an intolerable burden ; and they 
therefore assembled at home in their counties, passed resolutions, and framed 
instructions for deputies whom they seiit to the central diet to represent the county 
nobility — that is, those who did not go into the battle-field with their own banner, 
but linder the banner of the county. This Avas the origin of the lower chamber, 
or house of representatives, answering to our Commons. 

The banner-holders, on the contrary, had too expensive and heavy a share in the 
national defence to absent themselves from the assembly, as they could not fail to 
be largely afiected by its decisions ; and they accordingly came to form the Table 
of Magnates, or House of Lords : so that in process of time, the diet became split 
into two bodies ; one composed of those who went into battle with their own 
banner ; the other, of the representatives of absent nobles who fought under the 
county banner. 

It often happened, that a magnate was prevented attending in his place in par- 
liament through age or sickness, or absence on public duty, or the dignity was 

2 c 2 



372 HISTORY OF "HUNGARY. 

enjoyed \?y a widow ; and in this case he or she was permitted to send a deputy 
instead, something similar to the custom amongst our peers of voting by proxy. 
These deputies, representing at least one banner, had both a voice and a vote, and 
continued to enjoy both privileges so long as there was any truth or reality in 
their representation — that is, so long as there was a duty corresponding to the 
right. 

But by and by times changed, and the institutions changed with them. The 
forms remained, but the spirit departed. The duties ceased to exist, and the 
corresponding rights became merely nominal. This revolution was wrought by 
the introduction of standing armies. This mode of defending the kingdom was a 
favourite with the kings, because it furnished them with an instrument for 
establishing absolute power ; and it was a favourite with the aristocracy, because 
it relieved them of the troublesome duty of serving in person. The Avhole burden 
of maintaining the state Avas thus thrown upon the people, who furnished soldiers 
for the army, and were taxed for its support. The nobles declared, that if the 
country were attacked, and the regular army proved insufficient for its defence, 
they would rise en masse. To this word the term insurrection was applied, a word 
which in Hungary never conveyed the idea of armed resistance to authority. 
Under this futile pretext, the nobility kept all the political rights to themselves, 
and threw all the duties upon the people. This unnatural and unjust state of 
things continued until 1848, when Kossuth took the lead in a movement having 
for its object the reform of the constitution, based upon the principle of "equal 
rights, equal duties." 

In the meantime, however, facts and reality were making vigorous attacks on 
forms and fictions. The country nobility were yearly increasing in number, and 
they were strengthened by union with that large body, composed of the educated 
portion of the people — such as clergymen, professors, schoolmasters, lawyers, 
physicians, chemists, engineers, artists — who, imder the title of " honourable 
classes," were adniitted to a full share in their rights and privileges. Be- 
tween the poor members of nobility also, and the people, a perfect identity of 
interests had grown up. Thousands of the former lived as the people and amongst 
them, followed the same avStations, and shared the same toils and hardships. 
The relation between them, in fact, very much resembled that existing between 
our electors and non-electors. The country nobility then, aided by the municipal 
institutions, and managing the affairs of their counties in public assemblies with 
perfect freedom of speech, and increasing in energy and spirit every year, 
gradually acquired a greater preponderance in parliament through their represen- 
tatives. The magnates, on the contrary, having fallen from the proud position 
occupied by the ancient banner-holders, to that of empty title-holders, and 
representing no particular interest in the nation, lost their influence day by day. 
They had nothing to recommend them to notice but titles, which no one valued, 
because they were sold openly by the bankrupt Austrian court. They still 
continued to send deputies in their absence, however ; but these deputios, though 



THE WALLACKS 



373 



permitted to speak, lost the privilege of voting. So tliat the upper chamber, 
being mainlj'' filled by courtiers or bigoted tories, became a dead weight upon the 
constitution, and was firmly opposed to all reform. Such was the state of 
affairs in 1848. 

Vakiett of Races. — It was the misfortune of the barbarians who fixed their 
seats in eastern Europe, in the regions bordering on the Danube, after the fall of 
the Roman empire, that, owing to Avhatever cause, they could never amalgamate 
with their neighbours. In all the tempests of war, invasion and revolution, which 




ANCIENT DA.CIANS. 

have since rolled over them, they have remained almost as distinct in the great 
features of language, manners, and dress, as when they struck their tents on the 
plains of Asia. They have for many a century been paying the penalty of their 
conservative spirit by undergoing all the evils of foreign conquest and domina- 
tion. No country has suffered more from this cause than Hungary, for in none has 
the state of things consequent upon the original invasion been so faithfully pre- 
served down to the present day. 

The different races now inhabiting Hungary and Transylvania are the Magyars, 
Szeklers, Saxons, Sclaves, Sclavacks, and Wallacks, Czigany, or Gipsies, each of 
which speaks a different language, and,. as a general rule, occupies a separate 



374 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

district. Of the Magyars we have already spoken at sufficient length. "We shall 
refer to the others in the order in which they are supposed to have entered 
the country. 

The Wallacks are said to be the descendants of the ancient Dacians, %vho 
inhabited the province of Dacia when it was conquered by Trajan in the second 
century of the Christian era. They ^vere a people originally, no doubt, from 
Thrace, belonging to the great Hellenic family ; and, as they are referred to 
under that name by Herodotus, we may safely conclude that they Avere the 
first inhabitants of the country. The name Dacia was applied by the ancients 
to a great extent of territory, comprising all that lay between the Teyss, the 
Danube, and the Dneister, or, in other words, the eastern part of Hungary, Tran- 
sylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia. The inhabitants of the country, in the 
period immediately preceding the birth of Christ, appear to have acquired some of 
the arts of civilized life, and to have more than once proved themselves a match 
for the armies of the empire. The valour and misfortunes of their last king, 
Decebalus, have cast a lustre round his name little short of that which has 
attended the exploits of our own Caracalla. His genius and daring had made 
him the terror of Rome, Avhen Trajan ascended the throne of the Caesars, and 
resolved at once upon his destruction, and the restoration of the empire to its 
ancient glory. He accordingly led an army against him in the early part of the 
second century, and totally subdued him. 

Dacia appears to have remained in the possession of the Romans until the reign 
of Aurelian, when the imperial troops were at length compelled to retire and 
abandon it to the Goths, after occupying it for one hundred and seventy years. 
For a long period afterwards, the inhabitants experienced little rest. They were 
overrun by all the barbarians, who were making their Avay into Europe from the 
north-east — the Goths, Gepidae, Huns, Bulgarians, Avars, Sclaves, &c. ; all of 
whom left behind a greater or less number of stragglers, Avho became mingled 
with the rest of the population. The original inhabitants being brought under 
the domination now of one, nov/ of another, sank into a state of hopeless servitude, 
and lost all marks of their ancient freedom and glory, though they still affected to 
despise the latest arrivals, and to pride themselves upon their Roman descent, a 
distinction to which they could, however, lay no claim, except such as could be 
founded upon the trifling infusion of foreign blood which must have taken place 
by intermarriage with Trajan's colonists. At the time the Magyars arrived in the 
country, they appear to have partially recovered their independence, and to have 
been governed by a native prince, bearing the title of hiaz or ban. The secretary 
of Bela I. of Hungary, an able writer, though his name has not come down to us, 
makes .mention of a Wallack prince, named Gelu, whose rule appears to have 
extended over all the territory included in modern Transylvania, as well as of 
some of his successors. Their sovereignty was, however, short-lived. They 
speedily fell under the yoke of the Magyars, and they have ever since been the 
conquered race, .the villains of Hungary. Those to Avhom our observations here 



VARIETY OF RACES. 



375 



principally apply, appear to have been cut off from the cradle of their race, 
and are now chiefly found in the south and north-west of Hungary, and the 
south-west of Transylvania. While Transylvania was under the government of 
her native princes in the period between 1527 and 1713, when the country finally 
fell under the yoke of Austria, a number of them were enfranchised upon condition 
of doing military service, and have ever since possessed all the rights of the 
Magyar nobles, and they have been for a long time past gradually raising 
themselves to a footing of equality in Hungary. In 1791, two Greek bishops 
transmitted a petition to the emperor, praying him to assign to the Wallacks their 
legal and rightful position in Transylvania. This document Avas sent down to the 
diet, who passed a resolution, declaring that in accordance with article six of the 
law of 1744, the Wallacks did not form a separate and distinct people, but were 
part and parcel of the nation amongst whom they dwelt, — that the Wallack noble 
was in every respect equal to the Magyar noble, and the Wallack peasant to the 
Magyar or Saxon peasant. In 1843, the bishops of Bulasfalad and Szeben again 
called the attention of the diet to the treatment experienced by the Wallacks, in 
those districts in which the Saxons were in the majority. They declared that 
although the Magyars were making praiseworthy and noble efforts to obliterate 
all marks of the conquest, the Saxons were doing all in their power to keep alive 
the old distinctions, and were treating the Wallacks in every respect as an 
inferior and servile race. Relying on the vote of 1791, in which the Saxon 
deputies had concurred, the bishops demanded that the Wallacks should be placed 
on a footing of perfect equality ; should be admitted to the corporations ; and 
should have an equal share in the land attached to the villages. Their petition 
was supported by some of the most eloquent men in the diet, but it was not till 
1848 that the last traces of serfdom, inequality, and conquest, were entirely wiped 
out. Unhappily the concession came too late ; the Wallacks could not, or at 
least did not, appreciate it, and by their neutrality or hostility in 1849, they 
hastened the catastrophe which placed the Magyars at the mercy of their 
tyrants. 

The whole of the Wallack or Roumain race amounts at the present day to about 
6,400,000, divided in the following manner : — Moldavia contains 1,500,000, 
Wallachia 2,000,000, Bulgaria 100,000, Brabia 1,000,000, Bucovina 300,000» 
Hungary and Transylvania 2,500,000. The Hungarian and Transylvanian WaU 
lacks, as might be expected, have all the viCes and defects of slaves. 

The Sclavacics. — The great Sclave family, which at one period appears to 
have occupied nearly the whole east of Europe, from the Baltic and Adriatic to 
the banks of the Volga, and which still predominates in Russia, Poland, and along 
the Danube, is now divided into several members, two of which, the Sclavacks and 
Sclavonians, are found in great numbers in Hungary. They appear at one 
time to have peopled the greater part, if not the whole, of the country, and to 
have been driven into their present mountainous seats by the invasion of the" 
Magyars, just as in England the Celtic portion of the population was compelled to 



376 



HISTORY OF HUKGAllY. 



retire to the mountains of Wales, and the remote fastnesses of Cornwall, before 
the advance of the Saxons. The Sclavacks in Hungary are now confined to the 
mountainous district lying between the Danube, the Teyss, and the most northern 
range of the Carpathians, Avhere they still retain their primitive language and 
customs. The former differs from the Polish and Bohemian, but in no greater 
degree than the Welsh from the Erse and Gaelic. Other branches of the same 
family, amongst whom are the Serbs, or colonists from Servia, and Rusniacks 
from Russia, are also found in other parts of Hungary ; but all these are few in 
number and have settled in the country at a more recent period. 




SCLAVACK VAGABOKDS—.DROTOSTAT. 



The Sclavacks mostly belong to the Roman Catholic church, except a few, who 
are Lutherans, and are supposed to be the descendants of Bohemian Hussites who 
fled from the persecutions in their native country in the fifteenth century. They 
generally bear the usual marks of conquest and subjection — laziness, dislike to work, 
vacant expression of the countenance — seldom lighted up except by cunning, 
deceit, treachery, dirt and discomfort, patient endurance of insult and injury, and 
insatiable rapacity, love of begging, and proneness to intoxication. Both men and 
women indulge to excess in the use of ardent spirits. Their houses are much like 
those of the Wallacks, built generally of unhewn stems of pine, and carelessly 
thatched with straw, and shared by their pigs and cattle. They are totally wanting 



VARIETY OF RACES. 



377 



in the proud self-respect and love of personal comfort which distinguish the Mag- 
yars ; and the more secluded they are from intercourse with their conquerors, the 
coarser and more brutal they are in their manners. They are in general about 
middle height, strongly built, of light complexion, with coarse features, generally 
shaded by long flaxen hair. The most degraded are, unquestionably, those known 
as the Drotostat, a vagabond race, who earn a livelihood by tinkering. 

The Ckoats are another great branch of the Sclave family, and though not in 
reality belonging to Hungary Proper, yet have appeared so prominently at many 




CZIGANY, OR GIPSIES. 

periods in Hungary, being politically a part of the kingdom, that it would be 
impossible to pass them over without notice. Their original name was Horvates, 
so called after Horvdth, the name either of a great property or of a Hungarian 
noble ; but it was soon changed in consequence of their continued and frequent 
relations with the conquering race, and the subsequent annexation of their ter^ 
ritory to Hungary under some of her early kings. Croatia contains an area 
of about 172,000 square miles, and a population of 492,267. It is divided into 
three small counties, a part of which belonged, before the battle of Mohatz, to 
Upper Sclavonia; but it was enlarged by Ferdinand I., in return for the services 
rendered to the Hapsburg family by the inhabitants, 



378 HISTORY OF HUNGARY. 

The Croats are at present the least advanced in civilization of all the tribes 
that people Hungary, In fact, it would be hard to point to many traits of 
character or manners that raise them above the savage. They are to a man 
tall, active, and robust, capable of enduring any amount of fatigue, hardship, 
or privation ; and it is a point of honour amongst the women to equal the men in 
courage and fortitude. Those on the frontiers, to whom for many hundred years 
has been committed the defence of the boundaries of the empire against the 
Turks, are remarkable for their warlike disposition. They take this duty in turns, 
a certain portion of the male population being constantly in arms ; and then, after 
serving a stipulated period, returning to their farms and making way for their 
fellows. In time of war, when the force called the insurrectidn, or general 
levy of the whole of the inhabitants, every man takes arms and repairs to 
a particular post. Jellachich was in this Avay enabled to raise a vast force in 
1848, and to act with potent effect both in Italy and during the Hungarian war of 
independence. During that eventful period, Croatia had it in her power to have 
utterly overwhelmed the house of Hapsburg. 

The Croat possesses all the Russian imperturbable stedfastness under a heavy 
fire. There is but little impetuosity in his courage, but at close quarters nothing 
can surpass his ferocious intrepidity. The Croat infantry has long formed one of 
the most valuable forces in the Austrian services ; and during the wars of the 
succession under Maria Theresa, and in those of the Republic and Empire against 
France, they played a prominent part, and made their name terrible all over 
Europe. They do not possess a very large force of cavalry ; it is composed of 
hulans, seressans, and the ban, or viceroy's, frontier guard. The uniform of them 
all is very rich, and presents a striking and pleasing contrast to the coarse and 
heavy monotony of the appearance presented by the Austrian troops. The 
costume of the inhabitants in the districts bordering on Hungary diifers but little 
from that of the Magyars. 

The Croats construct their own houses, if houses they can be called, as they are 
seldom anything better than miserable huts, divided into two compartments, one 
for the family, the other for the cattle and pigs. The life led by the inmates is 
coarse and brutal. Both men and women indulge to excess in the use of ardent 
spirits ; and the consequence is, that though the unmarried women are remarkable 
for their chastity, conjugal fidelity is almost unknown. Their religious creed is 
that of Roman Catholicism, or rather, a very, clumsy imitation of it in the shape 
of a wild mixture of Christian doctrines with the grossest and most debasing 
superstitions; and this, combined with their strong'attachment to their native soil, 
renders them exclusive to a degree bordering on fanaticism. Of a literature, 
they have not even that indispensable element — a good language. 

The Serbs, another tribe of the Sclavonic family, dwell to the south of 
Hungary. Servia was originally a Turkish province, and it was about the year 
1690, in the reign of Leopold I., that a crowd of fugitives came from the right 
bank of the Danube, and demanded an asylum amongst their neighbours. The 



VARIETY OF llACES, 379 

request was granted, and, as a return for their services against the Turks, they 
were invested with civil rights. But they very soon gave signs of their intention 
to abuse the hospitality of the Magyars, by endeavouring to form a province, 
independent of the rest of the kingdom. As Austria was ever on the watch to 
take advantage of discord such as this, in order to rivet her own yoke more firmly, 
she pretended to recognise Servia as an independent state, and established at 
Vienna a Serb chancery. The remonstrances of the Hungarian diet, however, 
induced her to forego her design. 

The country known as Servia at the present day comprises the countries of Batz, 
Verocza, Temes, Torontal, Posega, and tjj^e military frontiers, containing 385,742 
Magyars, 357,198 Wallacks, 1,985 Greeks, 14,549 Jews, and 5,691 French- 
altogether 1,116,427 inhabitants, besides 1,295,093 Serbs, and 500,000 Croats 
or Sclavonians. 

The Serbs are in gen-eral tall, robust, and capable of enduring great fatigue 
and privations. All the children are bathed in the rivers in winter as well as in 
summer, and run upon the snow and ice with naked feet, and without any other 
garment than a shirt. 

Their costume differs but little from that of the Magyars. In some districts, 
however, it very much resembles Turkish, many of whose customs they still 
retain, such as that of sitting cross-legged, and allowing their beards to grow. 
They are very hospitable, and always manifest the liveliest joy upon the arrival 
of a stranger. Food is immediately prepared and set before him, aud before he 
goes to bed the mistress of the house washes his feet. Their food is prin- 
cipally vegetables and milk during the summer, and meat during winter, usually 
pork ; but their favourite dish is sauer kraut. They make also a sort of 
pudding from flour mixed with milk and lard. They are generally very ignorant, 
and remarked for their cunning and mendacity. Literature, except poetry, they 
have none, and their only musical instrument is a sort of hurdy-gurdy. 

The Saxons are German colonists who settled in Hungary and Transylvania in 
the reign of Geyza II. In the former they no longer form a compact and distinct 
settlement. They are scattered in the north in the county of Scepuse, and towards 
the south in the neighbourhood and even in the midst of the Serbs. In Transyl- 
vania they have preserved their manners and physiognomy. They are distinguished 
by their industry in agricultural labours, and numerous other handicrafts — a cir- 
cumstance which fully justified the observation of Joseph II., when giving Maria 
Theresa the result of his observations upon the people of the country through 
which he had travelled. " I have seen one industrious Saxon, and one hundred 
idle Wallacks." The Germans are ever greedy of gain, and spare no pains or 
fatigue to heap up riches. Although they have preserved their distinctive 
characteristics in Transylvania, it is well known that there is none easier of fusion 
with other peoples, as is proved by the case of the ancient Franks, who became 
absorbed into the Gauls, and by that of the modern Alsatians, who have become 
entirely French since the annexation of their province. The Hungarian kings 



380 HISTORY OF HUKGARY. 

assigned them a separate territory, with permission to regulate their internal 
affairs in whatever manner pleased them. This they took advantage of to frame 
a set of exclusive and intolerant laws. Whilst every German could claim the 
right of citizenship wherever he fixed his residence, no Hungarian was allowed 
under any circumstances to purchase a house in a German town, and the Wallacks 
were excluded with still greater rigour. Then came the reformation to widen 
the breach still further. Whilst the Transylvanians became Calvinists, or still 
remained in the Roman Catholic church, the Saxons, following the example of 
the German states, embraced Lutheranism. 

The CzTGANT, or Gipsies. — The gijsies are found in great numbers in Hun- 
gary, under the names of Czigany^ or Bohemians. According to the old Magyar 
historian, Pray, they were driven out of Asia by Tamerlane, and wandered into 
Hungary through Thrace and Macedonia. They, as is well known, practise the 
art of divination, and assert that they came originally from Egypt. Like their 
confreres in various other countries, they persist, notwithstanding all the efforts 
made to reclaim them, in following a nomade life ; but, receiving no education, 
having no home, no fortune, and no friends, they are generally half-starved, 
wretched, and degraded. The czigany delights in festivities of any kind. On 
ordinary days, whenever he does not leave his encampment on the borders of the 
steppe, or near the river, or at the edge of the wood, he may be seen lounging 
about amongst his fellows, his breast bare, exposed to the heat of the sun in 
summer, and the rigours of cold in winter, his only clothing being a sort of dirty, 
ragged shirt, which is never washed from the day on which it is made to that 
on which it falls to pieces on the shoulders of the wearer. But on Sundays he 
cuts a very different figure. He will not appear in the towns and villages, to join 
in the sports and revels of the people, and tell their fortunes, without putting on 
a very different costume. He then dresses as a Magyar, and assumes the bearing 
of a magnate. He does not pay much attention as to Avhether the details har- 
monize. Something brilliant he must have — perhaps the embroidered coat of a 
noble placed over a pair of tattered pantaloons. 

Some of the gipsy bands are said to be able to discourse very fine music. One 
of their favourite tunes is " Rakotski's March," the Hungarian national anthem. 



THE END, 



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